Ford Focus 2017 Service Manual

Ford Focus 2017 Service Manual

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PDF Contents : \- Audio SystemNavigation - SYNC \- Audio SystemNavigation -
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Charging System \- Cluster and Panel Illumination \- Connector Repair Procedures
\- Cooling Fan \- Electronic Engine Controls - 1.0L EcoBoost \- Electronic Engine
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butchery had long been contemplated, and that
Charles was privy to it—and notwithstanding the Salviati's
testimony.
circumstances that seem to give color to this
opinion,[942] I am compelled to acquiesce in the belief expressed by
the Papal Nuncio, Salviati, who, in his despatches, written in cipher
to the cardinal secretary of state, could certainly have had no motive
to disguise his real sentiments, and whom it is impossible to suppose
ignorant of any scheme for the general extirpation of the
Protestants, had such a scheme existed for any considerable length
of time: "As to all the statements that will be made respecting the
firing upon the admiral and his death, different from that which I
have written to you, you will in time find out how true they are.
Madame the regent, having come to be at variance with him [the
admiral], and having decided upon this step a few days before,
caused him to be fired upon. This was without the knowledge of the
king, but with the participation of the Duke of Anjou, the Duchess of
Nemours, and her son, the Duke of Guise. If the admiral had died at
once, no others would have been slain. But, inasmuch as he
survived, and they apprehended that some great calamity might
happen should he draw closer to the king, they resolved to throw
aside shame, and to have him killed together with the rest. And this
was put into execution that very night."[943]
As the hour approached, Coligny exhibited no
apprehension of special danger. Others, however, The king's
cordiality.
more suspicious, or possessed of less faith in
Heaven, felt alarm; and some acted upon their fears. The very
"goodness" of the king terrified one. Another said that he had rather
be saved with fools than perish with the wise, and hastily forsook
the capital. Dark hints had been thrown out by courtiers—such
surmises were naturally bred by the defenceless position of the
Protestants in the midst of a population so hostile to their faith as
the population of Paris—that more blood than wine would be spilled
at this wedding. And there were rumors of some mysterious
enterprise afloat; so, at least, it was said after the occurrence. But
Coligny moved not from the post which he believed had been
assigned to his keeping. On Wednesday Charles assured him, with
laughing countenance, that if the admiral would but give him four
days more for amusement, he would not stir from Paris until he had
contented him;[944] and the sturdy old Huguenot made no objection
when the king, in order to prevent any disturbance which the
partisans of Guise might occasion in seeking a quarrel with the
followers of the house of Châtillon, proposed to introduce a
considerable force of soldiers into the city. "My father," said Charles,
with his usual appearance of affection, "you know that you have
promised not to give any cause of offence to the Guises so long as
you remain here; and they have in like manner promised to respect
you and all yours. I am fully persuaded that you will keep your word;
but I am not so well assured of their good faith as of yours; for,
besides the fact that it is they that would avenge themselves, I know
their bravadoes and the favor this populace bears to them."[945]
On Friday morning, the twenty-second of August,
Admiral Coligny went to the Louvre, to attend a Coligny is
wounded, August
meeting of the royal council, at which Henry of 22.
Anjou presided. It was between ten and eleven
o'clock, when, according to the more primitive hours then kept, he
left the palace to return home for dinner.[946] Meeting Charles just
coming out of a chapel in front of the Louvre, he retraced his steps,
and accompanied him to the tennis-court, where he left him playing
with Guise, against Téligny and another nobleman. Accompanied by
about a dozen gentlemen, he again sallied forth, but had not
proceeded over a hundred paces when from behind a lattice an
arquebuse was fired at him.[947] The admiral had been walking
slowly, intently engaged in reading a petition which had just been
handed to him. The shot had been well aimed, and might have
proved fatal, had not the victim at that very moment turned a little
to one side. As it was, of the three balls with which the arquebuse
was loaded, one took off a finger of his right hand, and another
lodged in his left arm, making an ugly wound. Supported by De
Guerchy and Des Pruneaux, between whom he had previously been
walking, Coligny was carried to his house in the little Rue de Béthisy,
[948]
only a few steps farther on. As he went he pointed out to his
friends the house from which the shot had been fired. To a
gentleman who expressed the fear that the balls were poisoned, he
replied with composure: "Nothing will happen but what it may please
God to order."[949]
The attempted assassination had happened in front of the cloisters
of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. The house was recognized as one
belonging to the Duchess Dowager of Guise, in which Villemur, the
former tutor of young Henry of Guise, had lodged. The door was
found locked; but the indignant followers of Coligny soon burst it
open. They found within only a woman and a lackey. The assassin,
after firing, had fled to the rear of the house. There he found a
horse awaiting him; this he exchanged at the Porte Saint Antoine for
a fresh Spanish jennet. He was out of Paris almost before pursuit
was fairly undertaken. Subsequent investigation left no doubt as to
his identity. It was that same Maurevel of infamous memory, who
during the third civil war had traitorously shot De Mouy, after
insinuating himself into his friendship, and sharing his room and his
bed. The king's assassin, "le tueur du roi"—a designation he had
obtained when Charles or his advisers gave a special reward for that
exploit[950]—had been selected by Catharine, Anjou and the Guises,
as possessing both the nerve and the experience that were requisite
to make sure of Coligny's death. It was found that he had been
placed in the house by De Chailly, "maître d'hôtel" of the king, and
that the horse by means of which he effected his escape had been
brought to the door by the groom of the Duke of Guise.[951]
Charles was still in the tennis-court, when De Piles
came in, sent by Coligny, to inform him of the Agitation of the
king.
bloody infraction of the Edict of Pacification. On
hearing the intelligence, the king was violently agitated. Throwing
down his racket, he exclaimed: "Am I, then, never to have peace?
What! always new troubles?" and retired to his room in the Louvre,
with a countenance expressive of great dejection.[952] And when,
later in the day, the King of Navarre, the Prince of Condé, and La
Rochefoucauld, after seeing Coligny's wounds dressed, came to the
palace and begged him for permission to leave a city in which there
was no security for their lives, Charles swore to them, with his
accustomed profanity, that he would inflict upon the author and
abettors of the crime so signal a punishment that Coligny and his
friends would be satisfied, and posterity have a warning example.
Coligny had received the wound, he said, but the smart was his.
Catharine, who was present, chimed in, and declared the outrage so
flagrant, that just retribution must speedily be meted out, or
insolence would be pushed so far as that the king would be attacked
in his own palace.[953]
Meantime the admiral bore his sufferings with
serenity, and, far from needing any comfort his Coligny
courageous.
friends could give him, himself administered
consolation to the noblemen around his bed. His sufferings were
acute. Amboise Paré, the famous surgeon of the king, himself a
Huguenot, was called in; but the instruments at hand were dull, and
it was not until the third attempt that he could satisfactorily
amputate the wounded finger. "My friends," said Coligny to Merlin,
his minister, and to other friends, "why do you weep? As for me, I
think myself happy in having received these wounds for the name of
God." And when Merlin exhorted him "to thank God for His mercy in
preserving his mental faculties sound and entire, and to continue to
divert his thoughts and feelings from his assassin and his wounds,
and to turn them, as he was doing, from all things else to God, since
it was from His hands that he had received them," the admiral's
reply was, that sincerely and from the heart he forgave the person
who had wounded him, and those who had instigated him, holding it
for certain that it was beyond their power to injure him, since,
should they even kill him, death would be an assured passage to life.
[954]
Thus, with quiet submission, and with edifying prayers which it
would be too long to insert, the Admiral de Coligny passed those
hours which his enemies subsequently, in their desperate attempts
to justify or palliate the most abominable of crimes, represented as
given up to infamous plots against king and state.
That afternoon, between two and three o'clock,
Charles visited the wounded man, at the He is visited by
the king and his
suggestion of Téligny and Damville; for Coligny had mother.
expressed a desire to see the monarch, that he
might communicate certain matters which concerned him greatly,
but of which he feared there was no one else that would inform him.
[955]
The king came, accompanied by his mother, his brothers, the
Duke of Montpensier, Cardinal Bourbon, Marshals Damville, Tavannes
and Cossé, Count de Retz, and the younger Montmorencies, Thoré
and Méru.[956] The interview was kind and reassuring. The admiral,
who lay upon his bed, heartily thanked the king for the honor he had
deigned to do him, and for the measures he had already taken in his
behalf. And Charles praised the patience and magnanimity exhibited
by Coligny, and bade him be of good courage. Then more important
topics were introduced. There were three points respecting which
the admiral wished to speak to Charles. The first was his own loyalty,
which, however much it had been maligned by his enemies, he
desired now solemnly to reaffirm, in the presence of Him before
whose bar he might soon be called to stand, and he declared that
the sole cause of the hostility he had aroused was his attempt to set
bounds to the fury of those who presumed to violate royal edicts.
Next, he commended to the king the Flemish project. Never had any
predecessor of Charles enjoyed so splendid an opportunity as now
offered, when several cities of the Netherlands had declared their
desire for his favor and protection. But these advances were openly
derided by some of the courtiers about the king; while state secrets
were so badly kept, that "one could not turn an egg, nor utter a
word in the council, but it was forthwith reported to the Duke of
Alva." And, indeed, what else could be expected, since those who
were present, and even his own brothers, communicated to
foreigners and enemies the king's most confidential deliberations?
He earnestly begged Charles to apply a prompt remedy to this
matter in future. The last point was the observance of the Edict of
Pacification. What opinion would foreign nations form of the king, if
he suffered a law solemnly made, and frequently confirmed by oath,
to be openly trampled upon? In proof of this assertion, he alleged
the recent attack upon the Protestants of Troyes returning from their
place of worship, the tragic termination of which has already been
noticed.
To that part of Coligny's remarks which related to the war in
Flanders, it is said that Charles made no direct reply; but he declared
that he had never suspected the admiral's loyalty, and that he
accounted him a good man, and a great and generous captain.
There was not another man in the kingdom whom he would prefer
to him. And he again asseverated his intention to enforce a religious
observance of his edicts; for which purpose, indeed, he had recently
despatched commissioners into all the provinces, as the queen could
inform him. "That is true, Monsieur l'amiral," said Catharine, "and
you know it." "Yes, madam," he replied, "commissioners have been
sent, among whom are some that condemned me to be hung, and
set a price of fifty thousand crowns on my head." "Then," rejoined
Charles, "we must send others who are open to no suspicion." Again
he promised with his accustomed oath to see that the attempt upon
the admiral's life should be so punished that the retribution would be
forever remembered;[957] after which he inquired whether Coligny
were satisfied with the judges whom he had appointed to conduct
the investigation. Coligny replied that he committed himself in this
matter to the king's prudence, but suggested that Cavaignes, the
recently appointed maître de requêtes, and two other Huguenots be
added to the commission.
The king and De Retz both endeavored to persuade the admiral to
permit himself to be transported, for safety's sake, to the Louvre;
but Coligny's friends would not consent to a removal which might
endanger his life. Charles requested, before he left, to see the ball
extracted from the wounded arm, and examined it with apparent
curiosity. Catharine took it next, and said that she was glad that it
had been removed, for she remembered that, when the Duke of
Guise was shot, the physicians repeatedly said that, even if the ball
were poisoned, there was no danger to be apprehended when once
the ball was taken out. Many afterward regarded it as a significant
circumstance that the queen mother's mind should have reverted on
this occasion to the murder of which the Lorraine family still
persisted in accusing Coligny of having been the instigator.[958]
Such was, according to the solitary Huguenot who
was present by Coligny's bed, and who survived Catharine
attempts to break
the subsequent massacre, the substance of the up the
conversation at this celebrated interview. But, if we conference.
may credit the account which purports to have
been given by Henry of Anjou, there was an incident which he failed
to mention. At a certain point in the conversation Coligny asked to
be allowed to speak to the king in private, a request which Charles
willingly granted, motioning Henry and Catharine to withdraw. They
accordingly retired to the middle of the room, where they remained
standing during the suspicious colloquy. Meanwhile their
apprehensions were awakened as they noticed that there were more
than two hundred gentlemen and captains of the admiral's party in
this and an adjacent room and below stairs. The sad looks of the
Huguenots, their gestures expressive of discontent, their suppressed
whispers, as they passed to and fro, before and behind the queen
and her favorite son, with less respect than the latter thought was
due to them, impressed them with the idea that they were objects of
distrust. Catharine afterward admitted to Henry that never in her life
was she so glad to get out of any other place. Her impatience soon
impelled her to cut short the conference between Charles and
Coligny—much to the regret of Charles—on the pretext that longer
conversation might retard the sick man's recovery.
Scarcely had the royal party left the admiral's lodgings, when
Catharine began to ply Charles with questions respecting Coligny's
private communication. Several times he absolutely refused to satisfy
her curiosity. But at last, losing all patience, he roughly answered
her with an oath: "What the admiral told me was true: kings are
recognized as such in France only so far as they have the power to
reward or punish their subjects and servants; and this power and
the management of the affairs of the entire state have insensibly
slipped into your hands. But this authority of yours, the admiral told
me, may some day become highly prejudicial both to me and to my
whole kingdom, and I ought to look upon it with suspicion, and to
be on my guard. Of this he had desired, as one of my best and most
faithful subjects, to warn me before he died. Well then, mon Dieu,
since you will know it, this is what the admiral was telling me." "This
was uttered," Anjou subsequently said, "with so much passion and
fury, that the speech cut us to the heart. We concealed our emotion
as best we could, and vindicated ourselves. This discourse we
pursued from the admiral's lodgings to the Louvre. There, after
having left the king in his own room, we retired to that of the queen,
my mother, who was nettled and offended in the highest degree by
this language of the admiral to the king, and still more by the credit
the king seemed to give it, fearing that this might occasion some
change in our affairs and in the conduct of the state. To be frank, we
found ourselves so unprovided with counsel and understanding,
that, being unable to come to any determination at that time, we
separated, deferring the matter until the morrow."[959]
Meantime, Charles, not content with closing all the
gates of Paris, save two, which were to be strictly Charles writes
letters expressing
guarded, and with ordering a speedy judicial his displeasure.
investigation, despatched, on the very day of the
attempt on Coligny's life, a circular letter to all the governors of the
provinces, and a similar letter to his ambassadors at foreign courts,
declarative of his profound displeasure at this audacious crime. In
the former he said: "I am at once sending in every direction in
pursuit of the perpetrator, with a view to catch him and inflict such
punishment upon him as is required by a deed so wicked, so
displeasing, and, moreover, so inconvenient; for the reparation of
which I wish to forget nothing." And lest any persons, whether
Protestants or Roman Catholics, should be aroused by this news to
make a disturbance of the peace, he called upon all the governors to
explain the full circumstances of the case. "Assure every one," he
wrote, "that it is my intention to observe inviolate my edict of
pacification, and so strictly to punish those who contravene its
provisions, that men may judge how sincere is my will."[960] In a
similar strain he wrote to his ambassador in England, that he was
"infinitely sorry" (infiniment marry), and that he desired him to
acquaint Queen Elizabeth with his determination to cause such
signal justice to be executed, that every one in his realm might take
example therefrom. "Monsieur de la Mothe Fénélon," he added in a
postscript, "I must not forget to tell you that this wicked act
proceeds from the enmity between his [the admiral's] house and the
Guises. I shall know how to provide that they involve none of my
subjects in their quarrels; for I intend that my edict of pacification be
observed in all points."[961]
Not long after the king had left Coligny's room, the
admiral Was visited by Jean de Ferrières, Vidame The Vidame de
Chartres advises
de Chartres, a leading Huguenot, who came to the Huguenots to
condole with him. He also had a more practical leave Paris.
object in view. In a conference of the great nobles
of the reformed faith, held in the room adjoining the admiral's, he
advocated the instant departure of the Protestants from Paris, and
urged it at considerable length. He saw in the event of the day the
first act of a tragedy whose catastrophe could not be long deferred.
The Huguenots had thrust their head into the very jaws of the lion;
it were prudent to draw it out while it was yet time. But this sensible
advice, based less upon any distinct evidence of a plot for their
destruction than upon the obvious temptation which their
defenceless situation offered to a woman proverbially unscrupulous,
was overruled by the majority of those present. Téligny, in particular,
the accomplished and amiable son-in-law of Coligny, opposed a
scheme which not only might endanger the admiral's life, but would
certainly displease the king, by betraying distrust of his ability or his
inclination to defend his Protestant subjects.[962]
Saturday morning came, and with it a report from Coligny's
physicians, announcing that his wounds would not prove serious.
Meanwhile the investigation into the attempted assassination was
pursued, and disclosed more and more evidence of the complicity of
the Guises. The young duke and his uncle Aumale, conscious of the
suspicion in which they were held, and fearful perhaps of the king's
anger, should the part they had taken become known, prepared to
retire from Paris, and came to Charles to ask for leave of absence,
telling him at the same time that they had long noticed that their
services were not pleasing to him. Charles, with little show of
courtesy, bade them depart. Should they prove guilty, he said, he
would find means to bring them to justice.[963]
And now the time had arrived when Catharine and
the Duke of Anjou must come to a final decision Catharine and
Anjou come to a
respecting the means of extricating themselves final decision.
from their present embarrassments. Maurevel's
shot had done no execution. Coligny was likely to recover, to be
more than ever the idol of the Huguenots, to become more than
ever the favorite of the king. In that case the influence of Catharine
and her younger son would be irretrievably lost; especially if the
judicial investigation now in progress should reveal the fact that they
were the prime movers in the plan of assassination. Certainly neither
Henry of Guise nor his mother would consent to bear the entire
responsibility. More than that, the Huguenots were uttering loud
demands for justice, which to guilty consciences sounded like threats
of retribution.
We must here recur to Henry of Anjou's own account of this critical
period; for that strange confession throws the only gleam of light
upon the process by which the young king was moved to the
adoption of a course whereby he earned the reputation—of which it
will be difficult to divest him—of a monster of cruelty. "I went," says
Anjou, "to see my mother, who had already risen. I was filled with
anxiety, as also she was on her side. We adopted at that time no
other determination than to despatch the admiral by whatever
means possible. As artifice and cunning could no longer be
employed, we must proceed by open measures. But, to do this, we
must bring the king to this same resolution. We decided that we
would go in the afternoon to his private room, and would bring in
the Duke of Nevers, Marshals Tavannes and Retz, and Chancellor
Birague, solely to obtain their advice as to the means we should
employ in executing the plan upon which my mother and I had
already agreed.
"As soon as we had entered the room in which the
king my brother was, my mother began to They ply Charles
with arguments.
represent to him that the party of the Huguenots
was arming against him on account of the wounding of the admiral,
the latter having sent several despatches to Germany to make a levy
of ten thousand horse, and to the cantons of Switzerland for another
levy of ten thousand foot; that most of the French captains
belonging to the Huguenot party had already left in order to raise
troops within the kingdom; and that the time and place of
assembling had been fixed upon. Let so powerful an army as this
once be joined to their French troops—a thing which was only too
practicable—and the king's forces would not be half sufficient to
resist them, in view of the intrigues and leagues they had, inside and
outside of the kingdom, with many cities, communities, and nations.
Of this she had good and certain advices. Their allies were to revolt
in conjunction with the Huguenots under pretext of the public good;
and for him (Charles), being weak in pecuniary resources, she saw
no place of security in France. And, indeed, there was besides a new
consequence of which she wished to warn him. It was that all the
Catholics, wearied by so long a war, and vexed by so many sorts of
calamities, were determined to put an end to them. In case he
refused to follow their counsel, they also had determined among
themselves to elect a captain-general to undertake their protection,
and to form a league offensive and defensive against the Huguenots.
Thus he would remain alone, enveloped in great danger, and without
power or authority. All France would be seen armed by two great
parties, over which he would have no command, and from which he
could exact just as little obedience. But, to ward off so great a
danger, a peril impending over him and his entire state, so much
ruin, and so many calamities which were in preparation and just at
hand, and the murder of so many thousands of men—to avert all
these misfortunes, a single thrust of the sword would suffice—the
admiral, the head and author of all the civil wars, alone need be put
to death. The designs and enterprises of the Huguenots would
perish with him; and the Catholics, satisfied with the sacrifice of two
or three men, would remain obedient to him (the king)."
Such arguments, and many more of a similar character, does Henry
tell us that he and his wily mother addressed to the unhappy
Charles. At first their words irritated him, and, without convincing,
drove him into a frenzy of excitement. A little later, giving credit to
the oft-repeated assertions of his false advisers, and his imagination
becoming inflamed by the picture of the dangers surrounding him
which they so skilfully painted, he would, nevertheless, hear nothing
of the crime to which he was urged, but began anxiously to consult
those who were present whether there were no other means of
escape. Each man gave his opinion in succession; and each
supported Catharine's views, until it came to the turn of Retz, who,
contrary to the expectation of the conspirators, gave expression to
more noble sentiments.[964] If any one were justified in hating
Coligny and his faction, he said, it was himself, maligned, as he had
been, both in France and abroad; but he was unwilling, in avenging
private wrongs, to involve France and its royal family in dishonor.
The king would justly be taxed with perfidy, and all confidence in his
word or in public faith would be lost. Henceforth it would be
impossible to treat for terms of peace in those new civil wars in
which the French must be involved, and of which their children
would not see the end.
These wholesome words at first struck speechless
the advocates of murder. Then they undertook, by The king consents
reluctantly.
repeating their arguments, to destroy the effect of
the prophetic warning to which the king had just listened. They
succeeded but too well. "That instant," says Henry of Anjou, "we
perceived a sudden change, a strange and wonderful metamorphosis
in the king. He placed himself on our side, and adopted our opinion,
going much beyond us and to more criminal lengths; since, whereas
before it was difficult to persuade him, now we had to restrain him.
For, rising and addressing us, while imposing silence upon us, he
told us in anger and fury, swearing by God's death that, 'since we
thought it good that the admiral should be killed, he would have it
so; but that with him all the Huguenots of France must be killed, in
order that not one might remain to reproach him hereafter; and that
we should promptly see to it.' And going out furiously, he left us in
his room, where we deliberated the rest of the day, during the
evening, and for a good part of the night, and decided upon that
which seemed advisable for the execution of such an enterprise."
[965]

This is the strange record of the change by which Charles, from

being the friend of Admiral Coligny, became the accomplice in his
murder and in countless other assassinations throughout France.
The admission of his guilt by one of the principal actors in the
tragedy is so frank and undisguised that we find it difficult to believe
that the narrative can have emanated from his lips. But the freaks of
a burdened conscience are not to be easily accounted for. The most
callous or reticent criminal sometimes is aroused to a recognition of
his wickedness, and burns to communicate to another the fearful
secret whose deposit has become intolerable to himself. And
fortunately the confession of the princely felon does not stand alone.
The son of another of the wretches who persuaded Charles to
imbrue his hands in the blood of his subjects has given us the
account which he undoubtedly received from his father shortly
before his death, and we find the two statements to be in
substantial agreement. Tavannes says: "The king notified (of the
attempt upon Coligny's life), is offended, and threatens the Guises,
not knowing whence the blow came. After a while, he is appeased
by the queen, assisted by the sieur de Retz. They make his Majesty
angry with the Huguenots—a vice peculiar to his Majesty, who is of
choleric humor. They induce him to believe that they have
discovered an enterprise of the Huguenots directed against him. He
is reminded of the designs of Meaux and of Amboise. Suddenly
gained over, as his mother had promised herself that he would be,
he abandons the Huguenots, and remains sorry, with the rest, that
the wound had not proved mortal."[966]
And now, the assassination of the admiral having
received the king's approval, it only remained to Few victims
selected at first.
decide upon the number of Protestants who should
be involved with him in a common destruction, and to perfect the
arrangements for the execution of the murderous plot. How many,
and who were the victims whose sacrifice was predetermined? This
is a question which, with our present means of information, we are
unable to answer. Catharine, it is true, used to declare in later times
that she contemplated no general massacre; that she took upon her
conscience the blood of only five or six persons;[967] and, although
the unsupported assertion of so perfidious a woman is certainly not
entitled to any great consideration, we can readily see that the
heads of half a dozen leaders might have fully contented her. She
was not seeking for revenge so much as paving the way for her
ambition. There were few Huguenots who were apparently so
powerful as to interfere with her projects. Coligny, their
acknowledged head; the Count of Montgomery, personally hated as
the occasion of the death of her husband, Henry the Second, in the
ill-fated tournament; the Vidame of Chartres; and La Rochefoucauld
—these were doubtless of the number. Would she have desired to
include the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé? Not the former,
on account of his recent marriage with her daughter. Yet to whom
the Bourbons were indebted for the omission of their names from
the proscriptive roll we cannot tell. After the accession of Henry the
Fourth, it became the interest of all the families concerned to put the
conduct of their ancestors in the most favorable light. Thus, Jean de
Tavannes states that his father saved the life of the Bearnese in that
infamous conclave; but so little did the latter believe him, that, on
the contrary, he persistently refused to confer upon him the
marshal's baton, which he would otherwise have received, on the
ground that Gaspard de Tavannes was an instigator of the massacre.
[968]

Thus much must be held to be clearly established:

that fancied political exigencies demanded the Religious hatred.
assassination of only very few persons; that
personal hatred, on the part of the principal or of the minor
conspirators, added many more; that a still greater number were
murdered in cold blood, simply that their spoils might enrich the
assassins. What part must be assigned to religious zeal?[969] To any
true outgrowth of religion, none at all; but much to the malice and
the depraved moral teachings of its professed representatives. The
hatred of Protestantism, engendered in the minds of the people by
long years devoted to traducing the character and designs of the
reformers, now bore fruit after its own kind, in revolting crimes of
every sort; while the lesson, sedulously inculcated by priests,
bishops, and monks, that obstinate heretics might righteously be,
and ought to be exterminated from the face of the earth, permitted
many a Parisian burgess to commit acts from which any but the
most diabolic nature would otherwise have recoiled in horror. But of
the measure of the responsibility of the Roman pontiff and his clergy
for this stupendous crime, it will be necessary to speak in the sequel.
In devising the plan for the destruction of the
Huguenots, the queen mother and her council were Precautionary
measures.
greatly assisted by the course pursued by the
Huguenots themselves, and by the very circumstances of the case.
Under pretence of taking measures to secure the safety of the
Protestants, the "quarteniers" could go, without exciting suspicion,
from house to house, and make a complete list of all belonging to
the reformed church.[970] The same excuse served to justify the
court in posting a body of twelve hundred arquebusiers, a part along
the river, a part in the immediate neighborhood of Coligny's
residence.[971] And now the Protestants themselves, startled by the
unusual commotion which they noticed in the city, and by the
frequent passage to and fro of men carrying arms, sent a gentleman
to the Louvre to ask the king for a few guards to protect the
dwelling of their wounded leader. The request was only for five or six
guards; but Charles, feigning astonishment and deep regret that
there should be any reason for such apprehensions, insisted, at the
suggestion of his brother Anjou, who stood by, upon despatching
fifty, under command of Cosseins. So well known was the captain's
hostility to Coligny and the Protestants, that Thoré, Montmorency's
brother, whispered to the Huguenot messenger as he withdrew:
"You could not have been given in guard to a worse enemy;" but the
royal direction was so positive that no remonstrance seemed
possible. Accordingly, Cosseins and his arquebusiers took possession,
in the king's name, of two shops adjoining Coligny's abode.[972] With
as little ceremony, Rambouillet, the "maréchal des logis," turned the
Roman Catholic gentlemen out of the lodgings he had previously
assigned them in the Rue de Béthisy, and gave the quarters to the
Protestant gentlemen instead.[973] The reason assigned for this
action was that the Huguenots might be nearer to each other and to
the admiral, for mutual protection; the real object seems to have
been to sweep them more easily into the common net of
destruction.
And yet the majority of the Huguenot leaders were not alive to the
dangers of their situation. In a second conference held late on
Saturday, the Vidame of Chartres was almost alone in urging instant
retreat. Navarre, Condé, and others thought it sufficient to demand
justice, and the departure of the Guises, as possessing dangerous
credit with the common people. Téligny again dwelt upon the wrong
done to Charles in distrusting his sincerity, and deprecated a course
that might naturally irritate him. One Bouchavannes was noticed in
the conference—a professed Protestant, but suspiciously intimate
with Catharine, Retz, and other avowed enemies of the faith. He said
nothing, but listened attentively. So soon as the meeting was over,
Bouchavannes went to the Louvre and related the discussion to the
queen mother.[974] The traitor's report, doubtless grossly
exaggerated, is supposed to have decided Catharine to prompt
action. It is certain, at least, that the calumnious perversion of the
speeches and resolutions of the Huguenot conference was employed
to inflame the passions of the mob, as well as to justify the atrocities
of the morrow in the eyes of the world.
It was now late in the evening of Saturday, the
twenty-third of August. Coligny had been writing to Orders issued to
the prévôt des
his friends throughout France, recommending them marchands.
to be quiet, and informing them of the
investigations now in progress. God and the king, he said, would do
justice. His wounds were not mortal, thank God. If his arm was
wounded, his brain was yet sound.[975] Meantime, the original
framers of the murderous plot had called in the Guises, who in
reality had not left Paris.[976] It had been arranged that the
execution should be intrusted to them, in conjunction with the
Bastard of Angoulême, Charles's natural brother, and Marshal
Tavannes. And now at last we emerge from the mist that envelops
many of the preliminaries of the night of horrors. The records of the
Hôtel de Ville contain the first documentary evidence of the coming
massacre. There is no longer any doubt, unfortunately, of Charles's
approval and complicity. "This day, the twenty-third day of August,
very late in the evening," Charles sends for Charron, "prévôt des
marchands," to come to the Louvre. Here, in the presence of the
queen mother, the Duke of Anjou and other princes and lords, his
Majesty "declares that he has received intelligence that those of the
new religion intend to make a rising by conspiracy against himself
and his state, and to disturb the peace of his subjects and of his city
of Paris; and that this very night some great personages of the said
new religion and rebels have conspired against him and his said
state, going to such lengths as to send his Majesty some arrogant
messages which sounded like menaces." Consequently, in order to
protect himself and the royal family, Charles directs the prévôt to
seize the keys of all the gates of the city, and to keep them carefully
closed, in order to prevent any one from entering or leaving Paris.
He also commands him to remove all the boats moored along the
Seine, so as to prevent any one from crossing the river; and to put
under arms all captains, lieutenants, ensigns, and burgesses capable
of doing military duty.[977] The orders were faithfully and promptly
obeyed. Long before morning dawned they had been transmitted
successively to the lower municipal officers, quarteniers, dizainiers,
etc.; the wherry-men had been stopped, and the troops and
burgesses of Paris having armed themselves as best they could,
were assembled ready for action in front of the Hôtel de Ville, on
that famous Place de Grève, so often drenched in martyr's blood.
[978]

To the guilty plotters that was a sleepless night.

Unable to rest quietly, at a little before dawn, The first shot and
the bell of St.
Catharine with her two elder sons found her way to Germain
the portal of the Louvre, adjoining the tennis court. l'Auxerrois.
There, in a chamber overlooking the "bassecour,"
they sat down to await the beginning of their treacherous enterprise.
If we may believe Henry of Anjou, none of them as yet realized its
full horrors; but as they quietly watched in that hour of stillness for
the first signs of the coming outbreak, the report of a pistol-shot
reached their ears. Instantly it wrought a marvellous revulsion in
their feelings. Whether the shot wounded or killed any one, they
knew not; but it brought up vividly to their imaginations the results
of the terrible deluge of blood whose flood-gates they had raised.
Hastily they send a servant to the Duke of Guise, and countermand
the instructions of the evening, and bid him do no injury to the
admiral. It is too late! The messenger soon returns with the tidings
that Coligny is already dead, that the work is about to begin in all
the rest of the city. This news produces a fresh change. With one of
those fluctuations which are so easy for souls that have no firm or
established principles, but shift according to the deceptive, ever-
varying tide of apparent interest, the mother and her sons return
heartily to their former purpose. The die is cast, the deed is half
done; let it be fully and boldly consummated. No room now for pity
or regret.[979]
It was a Sunday morning, the twenty-fourth of August—a day sacred
in the Roman calendar to the memory of Saint Bartholomew.
Torches and blazing lights had been burning all night in the streets,
to render the task easy. The houses in which Protestants lodged had
been distinctly marked with a white cross. The assassins themselves
had agreed upon badges for mutual recognition—a white cross on
the hat, and a handkerchief tied about the right arm. The signal for
beginning was to be given by the great bell of the "Palais de Justice"
on the island of the old "cité."[980]
The preparations had not been so cautiously made but that they
attracted the notice of some of the Huguenots living near Coligny.
Going out to inquire the meaning of the clash of arms, and the
unusual light in the streets, they received the answer that there was
to be a mock combat in the Louvre—a pleasure castle was to be
assaulted for the king's diversion.[981] But, as they went farther and
approached the Louvre, their eyes were greeted by the sight of more
torches and a great number of armed men. The guards, full of the
contemplated plot, could not refrain from insults. It soon came to
blows, and a Gascon soldier wounded a Protestant gentleman with
his halberd. It may have been at this time that the shot was fired
which Catharine and her sons heard from the open window of the
Louvre. Declaring that the fury of the troops could no longer be
restrained, the queen now gave orders to ring the bell of the
neighboring church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois.[982]
Meantime Henry of Guise, Henry of Valois, the
Bastard of Angoulême, and their attendants, had Murder of Admiral
Coligny.
reached the admiral's house. The wounded man
was almost alone. Could there be any clearer proof of the rectitude
of his purpose, of the utter falsity of the charges of conspiracy with
which his enemies afterward attempted to blacken his memory?[983]
Guerchy and other Protestant gentlemen had expressed the desire
to spend the night with him; but his son-in-law, Téligny, full of
confidence in Charles's good intentions, had declined their offers,
and had, indeed, himself gone to his own lodgings, not far off, in the
Rue St. Honoré.[984] With Coligny were Merlin, his chaplain, Paré, the
king's surgeon, his ensign Cornaton, La Bonne, Yolet, and four or
five servants. In the court below there were five of Navarre's Swiss
guards on duty.[985] Coligny, awakened by the growing noise in the
streets, had at first felt no alarm, so implicitly did he rely upon the
protestations of Charles, so confident was he that Cosseins and his
guards would readily quell any rising of the Parisians.[986] But now
some one knocks at the outer door, and demands an entrance in the
king's name. Word is given to La Bonne, who at once descends and
unlocks. It is Cosseins, followed by the soldiers whom he commands.
No sooner does he pass the threshold than he stabs La Bonne with
his dagger. Next he seeks the admiral's room, but it is not easy to
reach it, for the brave Swiss, even at the risk of their own lives,
defend first the door leading to the stairs, and then the stairs
themselves. And now Coligny could no longer doubt the meaning of
the uproar. He rose from his bed, and, wrapping his dressing-gown
about him, asked his chaplain to pray; and while Merlin endeavored
to fulfil his request, he himself in audible petitions invoked Jesus
Christ as his God and Saviour, and committed to His hands again the
soul he had received from Him. It was then that the person to
Whom we are indebted for this account—and he can scarcely have
been another than Cornaton—rushed into the room. When Paré
asked him what the disturbance imported, he turned to the admiral
and said: "My lord, it is God that is calling us to Himself! The house
has been forced, and we have no means of resistance!" To whom
the admiral, unmoved by fear, and even, as all who saw him
testified, without the least change of countenance, replied: "For a
long time have I kept myself in readiness for death. As for you, save
yourselves, if you can. It were in vain for you to attempt to save my
life. I commend my soul to the mercy of God." Obedient to his
directions, all that were with him, save Nicholas Muss or de la
Mouche, his faithful German interpreter, fled to the roof, and
escaped under cover of the darkness.
One of Coligny's Swiss guards had been shot at the foot of the
stairs. When Cosseins had removed the barricade of boxes that had