The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1871-02-02
Massacre of st. Bartholomew's Eve.

Massacre of st. Bartholomew's Eve.
The clock Of the church Of st, Ger.
main TAuxerrois sounded over silent
Paris. its ominious peal awoke an aw-,
fu! clamor such as the earth had never
, witnessed before. A clang Of bells res.
ponded from every tower and belfry, the
adhercnts Of the pope seized their arms,
| rushed to the houses OF the Hugunots,
and murdered every inmate, from the
sleeping infant to the gray-haired grand;
sire and the helpless maid. The city
had suddenly been illuminated and
from every Catholic house the blaze OF
torches lighted up the labor Of death.
Beneath their rays were seen woh'eri
unsexed, aud tile children endowed With
an unatural malice, torturing and treat
ing with strange malignity the dying
aud the dead. 1t Is impossible, indeed,
! to narrate the details Of. this awful
event over which the Catholic kings
and priests rejoiced, aud for which tho
intallible pope at Rome gave public
thanks to God. E#s &g4GasG
Within the palace of the Louvre itself,
where a few days before every saloon
had rung with festivity, and where
mask and dance and throrgs o. gallant
knights and maidens had greeted the
nuptials Of Henry and Marguerite, now
echoed the groans of the dying Huguen-
OTIS and the shrieks of the terrified queen.
In the evening Marguerite had been
driven by the enraged mother from her
presence and from the arms Of her sister
Claude, who would have detained her,
and was forced to 20 trembling to the
apartmel of her husband, lest her alb
sence might excite suspicion. She lay
awake all night, filled with a sense of
impending danger; she pretends that
she knew nothing Of the approaching
event. Henry's rooms were filled with
his companions in arms. who passed the
night in uttering vain threats aga'nt the
Guises, and planning projects of re-
venge. Toward morning they all went
out in company with the king; and
Margurite weary with watching, sank
into brief slumber. She was aroused
by loud cry without Of Navarro!
Navarre!" and a knocking at the door.
It 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-tlle
Huguenot was allowed to hide himself
in her closet. Marguerite fled hastily
across the halls o. the Louvre to her sis
ter's room, and as she passed amidst
the scene that had so lately rung with
the masks and revels Of her wedding
night, she saw another Huguenot pierre
ed by the spear Of pursuer, and heard
the clamor of the general massacre.
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 rctaine-s.
Meantime, when Henry Of Navarro
/ had left his room i'm the morning, he
| had been arrested and carried to the
kings chamber; but of the throag Of
! Huguenots who had attended him In
the night, only a few escaped. Each
NJ an as he passed out into the court be-
tween two lines Of Swiss guards,
was stabbed without mercy.
Two hundred Of the noblest and
purest reformers Of France lay piled ia
huge heap before the windows of tie
Louvre Charles TX, Catherine, and
/ f.. nc .Ia >r
inspected and dcrided them as they lay
dead.
| All through that fearful Sabbath day,
/ the feast Of st. Bartholomew, and for
two succeeding days, the murders went
/ on; the whole city was in arms; every
| hat or cap marked with white cross,
and every Catholic was converted into
an assassin. Charles, a lunatic, rode
through the streets laughing ar'd jesting
over the fallen the streets were filed
with corpses; the Seine was turned to
blood; many Catholics grew rich by the
plunder of the Huguenots and it was
believed that the King and his brother
Anjou, shared the spoils ofopulcnt mer-
chants and skilliul goldsmiths. The
Papal nuncio, Saiviati, ovcrjoyel at the
spectacle, wrote to the Pope that noth-
ing could be seen in the streets but
white cresses, producing fine effect
he did not see the heaps of dead nor the
scenes of ineXpireble crime. Charles
IX. shot at the flying Iuguenots from
his bedroom window. The rage of tho
murderers were chiefly turned against
women and infants A man threw two
little ones into the Seine from basket
another infant was dragged through the
streets by cord tied around its neck, by
n throng of Catholic children; a babe
smiled in the face of the man who bad
seized it, and played with his beard,
but the monster stabbed the child with
an oath and threw into the Seine.
For three days the massacre continu-
ed with excessive atrocities; q month
later Huguenots were still being murd-
cred in Paris. 1t is computed that
several thousand persons perished in
the city alone. In every part of the
kingdom, by order of the king, an effort
was made to exterminate the IIuguenots,
and Lyons, Orleans. Bordeaux, and all
the provincial towns, ran with blood.
Four thousand reformers are said to
have been killed at Lyons. At Bord-
eaux, Anger, the most eloquent Of the
Jesuit preachers, employed all his DOW