Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-11-08
Massacre of st. Bartholomew's Eve.

linen clothing streaked and begrim-
med with the marks Of his peril"
Massacre of st. Bartholomew's Eve.
The clock of the church of St. Ger
main PAuxerrois sounded over silent
Paris. Its ominous peal awoke an
awful clamor, such as earth had never
witnessed before. A clang Of bells
responded from every tower and bel
fry. the adherents of the Pope seized
their arms, rushed to the houses of the
Huguenots, and murdered every in
mate, from the sleeping infant to the
gray haired grand-sire and helpless
maid. The city had been suddenly
illuminated, and from every Catholic
house the blaze of torches lighted up
the labor of death. Beneath their
rays were seen women unsexed, and
children endowed with an unnatural
malice, torturing and treating with
strange malignity the dying aud the
dead. 1t is impossible, indeed, to mar
rate the details of this awful event over
which Catholic kings and priests re-
joiced, and for which the infallible
Pope of Rome gave public thanks to
God.
Within the palace OF Louvre itself,
where few days before every saloon
had rung with festivity, and where
mask and dance and throngs of gal
lant knights and maideps had greeted
the nuptials of Henry and Marguerite,
now echoed the groans of dying Hugu-
enots, and shrleks of the terrified
queen. In the evening Marguerite had
been driven by her enraged mother
from her presence and from the arms
of her sister Claude, who would have
detained her, and was forced to go
trembling to the apartment of her
husband. lest her absence might excite
suspicion. She lay awake all night,
filed with a scene of impending dan
ger; she pretends that she knew moth
ing of the approaching event. Henry's
rooms were filled with his companions
in arms, who spent the night in vain
threats against the Guises, and plan
ming projects of revenge. Toward
morning they all went out in company
with the king; and Marguerite, weary
of watching, sunk into brief slumber.
She was aroused by a loud cry with
out of Navarro! Navarro and a
knocking at the door. 1t was thrown
open, man wounded and bleeding,
pursued by four soldiers, rushed into
the room and threw his arms around
the queen. He clung to her begging
for life. She screamed in her terror;
the captain of the guard came in and
drove off the soldiers and the wound
ed Huguenot was allowed to hide him.
self in her closet. Marguerite fed
hastily across the hall Of the Louvre
to her sisters room, and, as she pass
ed amidst the scene that had so lately
rung with the masks and revels of her
wedding night, she saw another Hu-
guenot pierced by spear of his, and
heard the clamor of the general mas
sacre. Faint and trembling, she went
to her mother and the king. threw
herself at their feet, and begged the
lives of two of her husbands re-
tainers.
Meantime, when Henry of Navarro
had left his room in the morning, be
had been arrested and carried to the
kings chamber; but of the throng of
Huguenots who attended him in the
night only few escaped. Each man
as he passed out into the ourt,between
two lines of guards, was stabbed with
out mercy. Two hundred of the
noblest and purest reformers of France
lay piled in huge heap before the
windows of the Louvre; Charles ~,
Catherine, and her infamous train of
maids of honor, inspected and derided
them as they lay dead. All through
that fearful sabbath day, the feast of
St. Bartholomew,and for two succeed
ing days, the murders went on; the
whole city was in arms; every hat or
cap was marked with a white cross,
and every catholic was converted into
an assassin. Charles, a raging luna
tic, rode through the streets, laughing
and jesting over the fallen the streets
were filled with corpses; the Seine
was turned to blood many Catholics
grew rich by the plunder of the HUI
guenots; and it was believed that the
king and his brother, Anjou, shared
the spoils of opulent merchants and
skillful goldsmiths. The papal nuncio
Salviati, overjoyed at the spectacle,
wrote to the Pope that nothing was
to be seen in the streets but white
crosses, producing a fine effect; he
did not see the heaps of dead, nor the
scenes of incapable crime. Charles
TX, shot at the flying Huguenots
from his bedroom window. The rage
of the murderers was chiefly turned
against women and infants. One man
threw two little children into the
Seine in basket; another infant was
dragged through the streets by cord
tied around its neck by throng of
Catholic children; babe smiled in
the face of a mar who had seized it,
and played with his beard, but the
monster stabbed the child, and, with
an oath, threw it in the Seine.
For three days the massacre con-
tinued with excessive atrocities;
month later Huguenots were still be-
ing murdered in Paris. 1t is comput-
ed that several thousand persons
were murdered in that city alone. In
every part of the kingdom, by orders
of the king, an effort was made to ex-
terminate the Huguenots; and Lyons,
Orleans, Bordeaux, and all the pro-
vincial towns ran with blood. Four
thousand reformers are said to have
been killed in Lyons. At Bordeaux,
Anger, the most eloquent of the Jes-
uit preachers, employed all his power
in urging on the work Of slaughter.
@Who," he cried, executed the divine
judgments at Paris? The angel of
the Lord. Aud who will execute
them in Bordeaux The angel of the
Lord, however man may resist him !"
The number of the slain throughout
France has been variouslv estimated