comand this is the K. comand Presently the Duke of Guise and his ignoble Train of Nobles goes out of the Court crying Armour Armour we have had good success and a happy beginning let us now proceed to the rest for it is the Kings Commandment which words he repeated often This is the Kings command This is his commandment this is his Will this is his express Pleasure The Alarm bell rings to a general Massacre Then was caused to ring the bloody token for a General Alarum being the great Bell of the Palace and instantly it was bruted and published as the cause of this Murther That the Protestants had conspired against the King Queen and Court and were about to put this design into practice being armed to that purpose The Admirals body cruelly abused his head cut off and sont to the Pope by the King Then a certain Italian of Gonzagues band cut off the Admirals head which was sent to the King and Queen Mother and by them preserved with spices and so sent to the Pope and Cardinal of Lorrain at Rome as a rich Present Others cut off his hands others his secret parts then the common rascally rable for three daies together dragged his dead body which was mangled and besmered with blood and filth through the streets and afterwards drew it out of Town to the common Gallows and so with a rope left his body hanging by the feet at Montfaucon These cruelties were the badges of the Kings commands and these bloody Hell-hounds wore their Masters Livery All they find in the Admirals lodging are basely murthered among whom 2 children of honourable birth Now the Nobles and their cruel Murtherers brake into the rest of the Admirals chambers and those they found in their beds or hidden in any corners they mangled with many bloody-wounds and so cruelly destroyed them amongst which number thus slain was two young innocent babes Pages of an honourable birth and extract which indeed seemed to all that heard it to be too great an act of cruelty but what was bad enough to be done was their best deeds whereby they hoped with the help of the Popes Bulls to prove not only pardonable but also meritorious Count Rochfoucault a brave and noble Commander basely slain and extreamly pittied There was basely murthered the Count Rochfoucault which for his great wisdom pleasant wit and exeeding valour was highly esteemed of by King Henry and for the same cause this King shewed the like favour This brave Commander Statesman and Nobleman de Naunce was commanded to kill but for the true worth he knew was lodged in the heart of this brave Worthy and for the old acquaintance he had with him he utterly abominated it in an absolute refusal but one Laberge an Avernois and Limb of Hell one that was willing to sell his Soul for a little profit one that would receive a reward though it were from the Devils hands one that would enter upon any bloody service though his pay was damnation Deut. 27.25 Cursed is he that taketh are-ward to slay an innocent person and all the people shall say Amen The Admirals Son a noble and valiant Gentleman basely slain his brave speech This bloody unworthy fellow offered himself to the King to murther this brave nobleman if his Majesty would grant him the Count's Captainship of Horse and thus was this gallant Count basely murthered by men not to be spoken of for men when the Count will be remembred and named with respect in the Court of honour At the same time also and in the same place the Admirals Son Teligny was slain he was a young Gentleman of great accomplishments both of wit and valor insomuch that the King by his respects and affections shewed to him did do homage to his great deserts even to exalting him to the highest strain of Adulation this gallant young Gentleman I say being designed to such a cowardly death and base murther cryed out That now he saw it was even grievous for him to live in that he was the cause of his Fathers confidence of the Kings Love in that he had often commended the Kings faithfulness to him and so this brave Gentleman refused not this death offered him yielding his life as a sacrifice to their wrath and cruelty and thus was this poor Gentleman miserably butchered His Lieutenant shews great valor and fights stoutly but is murthered But his Lieutenant a resolute and brave young Gentleman having the advantage of his arms lengthened out his life in a stiff and stout resistance shewing that he would do what he could not who like a valiant Souldier wrapping his cloak about his arm he fought for his life to the feeling and applause of his bloody and merciless enemies but at last overpowred with number and strength was as unworthily slain as highly applauded Many brave Noblemen Gentlemen basely bloodily and inhumanly murthered in their chambers and streets At this time also was murthered Collonel Montaumar and Rouray Son to the Baron Des Adretts with all the rest of the Gentlemen that had relation to the Admiral amongst whom were many flourishing young Noblemen and Gentlemen all being basely and cruelly murthered and butchered in the prime of their youth and so cut off from all future hopes of high attempts who as they were the cream of the Protestnt Gallantry so were they the But of their Enemies cruelty And thus fell these Noble Gentlemen that at all times carried so much intrinsick worth as purchased immortal praise After this Cossins Souldiers with the Noblemens bands The Soldiers encoraged to blood by having the plunder free for their reward Men Women and children murthered children taken out of the womb alive and murthered the street strewed with dead bodys went ransacking from House to house tearing all away that was worth carriage and in such a manner as is commonly done at taking a Town by storm and so many grew rich by others poverty For the Duke of Guise Duke of Montpenscir the Cavalleir King Henry's bastard Gonzague Tavignes and other Principal Lords encouraged the Soldiers to proceed to blood with promise of all the booty free for their pains still crying out This is the Kings commandment So all the day from Morning to evening the skum of the City the gleanings of all villains did run up and down with their bloody Swords raging and glorying in their bloody Massacres unheard of murthers for they spared not the aged nor the women with child nor the poor innocent babes some whereof being taken alive out of their Mothers wombs without pitty they cruelly and presently destroyed and in a Triumphant joy they threw the slain bodies out of the Windows insomuch that there was scarce a lane that was not strewed with the dead bodies of the poor Protestants Nothing to be heard but the doleful crys and groans of the dying and terrible noise of the murtherers And as the City felt
the rage of these Tygers so the Suburbs also where was nothing but murthering and all sorts of cruelties committed men women and children rich and poor old and young nothing to be heard in Paris and the Subburbs but a horrible and terrible noise of arms horses and harquebuziers with a doleful sad and lamentable howling and crying of poor souls going to the slaughter and knew not wherefore a piteous complaint of such as cryed to the villains for mercy together with the merciless and cruel shouts of murtherers and bloody Hell-hounds crying kill destroy for the King commands it mixed with the sad groans of the dying that it seemed as if heaven and earth had met together as if the Heavens would have rent with thunder Oh! sad Oh! wretched King to stain thy honour with such perfidious breach of promise to water thy Kingdom with the blood of Gods people and so to dissemble with the world as if dissembling were further from thy thoughts than thy heart from reality Streets and Rivers dyed with blood The Pavement Market place and Rivers were died with blood and it was heard say by the murtherers that they had put an end to that quarrel that neither pen paper decrees of Justice nor open War could accomplish in twelve years 10000. protestants murthered in one day by the K. command About ten thousand souls makes this Lords day famous for ever with effusion of their pretious and innocent blood such as no age or time can parallel for there was at this time in Paris sixty thousand men with Pistols Pikes Poinyards Curtelaces Knives and such other bloody Instruments who run up and down swearing and blaspeming the sacred Majesty of God cruelly massacring all they meet the streets being covered with mangled bodies Gates and doors defiled with blood And yet we see but in part what cruelties were committed if we compare what we have read and what we shall read together For now having given thee a sight of such Treachery Poisonings perjuries Cruelties and damnable dissimulations with the many murthers committed on the Admiral and Friends in Paris I shall endeavour in the next chapter to give a tast of such sad Massacres and cruelties as will affright and astonish the heart of any true Protestant and if thou hast any grain of true Christianity in thee thou canst not but be toucht with a fellow-feeling of these sad and unheard of murthers and crueltys CHAP. VIII The Contents THe King labours to turn the King of Navar and Prince of Conde to the Catholick Religion by threatning of death and promises of Life Their answers Many Gallant and Peerless Commanders hewen in peeces at the Loure crying out to the Kings Oaths and Promises in the Kings hearing That brave and unparalleled Commander Monsieur de Piles basely slain crying out aloud to the King protesting against his treacherous cruelty and perjury Two hundred gallant Gentlemen slain Count de Montgomery and Vidame of Charteres escape to England A Plot against Rochel but prevented La Charite surprized and all the Protestants cut off The murther at Paris renewed next day the bodies of the dead thrown into the River Sein In two daies above ten thousand slain whereof five hundred of Noble blood Gentlemen with many Ladies and Gentlewomen that came to the mariage The King sends by Post to command all the Protestants to be cut off following the example of Paris Three Noble Gentlemen in the Court murthered The strange sad and cruel death of a brave Gentleman Monsieur de la Place Peter Ramus that famous Professor of Logick basely slain A sad yet comfortable death of a Godly young Christian A terrible and unheard-of cruelty committed on a Gentlewoman with child Merciless cruelty committed on a poor child The most Cruel Horrid and unheard of butchery at Lyons not to be paralleled in any age the blood running through the streets reeking hot to the terrour of the Catholicks themselves The Bloody Massacre at Meaux The like sad Massacre at Troys The bloody Murthers at Orleans The cruel butcheries at Tholouse The cruel slaughters and bloody murthering of six thousand Protestants at Roan The Murthers at Angiers A Godly Minister that had laid the first foundation of a Church in Paris is murthered by the Kings command WHilst these sad cruelties were executed at the Admirals Lodging and in the City and Suburbs of Paris Let us now behold with pitty a number of brave Commanders murthered in the Kings Castle of the Loure by the Kings commandement and in his sight For the King of Navar and Prince of Conde did lodge in the Loure with many other brave Commanders which came to accompany the King of Navar and Prince of Conde The K. promises pardon to the King of Navar Prince of Conde if they will turn Papists The first thing the King falls on after his bloody Butchery in Paris was to deal with the King of Navar and Prince of Conde to whom he gave command to be brought into his presence The King told them all that was done that he had now cut off all the instruments of the late Civil Wars and he hoped would prove a prevention of future troubles for by his command the Admiral was slain with his Train and that no less was done in other Cities to all the Protestants but saies he by reason of your young and tender years and neer alliance in consanguinity and marriage therefore it is I desire you should be pardoned but we shall see it on sad terms to these poor tender hearts ready to break with grief at their friends death and their own too sad and rigid fate Poor Princes betrayed by the cruelty of a perfidious merciless King The King tells them their Lives depended on the reforming their Judgements and turning to the Catholique Religion for he is resolved never to have any more than one Religion in his Kingdom and if they embraced not this Snake in their bosome they must be stung with his bloody Sword as the deserts of their obstinacy The K. of Navars answer to the K. of France The King of Navar humbly beseeched his Majesty to remember his Promises Engagements and now the near alliance by mariage lately contracted and not to force him in those things which only he must be accountable to God alone for that he would please rather to imprison his body than his soul and not to force him to make shipwrack of a good conscience by a violent assault Now the Prince of Conde like a resolved Christian also The P. of Conde's zealom answer to the King did with much zeal answer the King in this manner That he having given his Oaths and promlses in solemn and publick Protestations to all of the Religion would not he hoped forget the great ty of performance which all men are bound to observe under pain of Gods heavy Judgements and therefore he wondered his Majesty should so soon be perswaded to break
incerted only this following Letter The true Copy of the Kings letter to the Governour of Burgundy Cousin YOu have perceived what I wrote unto you Yesterday concerning my Cousin the Admirals wounding and how ready I was to do my endeavour to search out the truth of the deed and to punish it wherein nothing was left undone or forgottou But it hapned since that they of the house of Guise and other Lords and Gentlemen their Adherents whereof there be no small number in this City when they certainly knew that the Admirals friends would proceed to the revenge of his hurt and because they were suspected to be the Authors thereof were so stirred up this last night that a great and lamentable sedition arose thereof insomuch that the Guard by me appointed for his defence about his House was set upon and he himself with certain of his Gentlemen slain and havock of others made in divers places of the City which was handled with such rage that I could not use the remedy I would but had much ado to employ my Guards and other Defence for the safety of my self and my brethren in the Castle of the Loure to give order hereafter for the appeasing of this Sedition which is at this hour well appeased thanks be to God and came to pass by a particular and private quarrel of long time fostering betwixt these two houses Whereof when I foresaw that there would succeed some mischievous purpose I did what I could possibly to appease it as all men know and yet hereby the Edict of Pacification is not broken which I will to be kept as straitly as ever it was as I have given to understand in all places throughout my Realm and because it is greatly to be feared that such an execution might stirr up my Subjects one against another and cause great murthers through the Cities of my Realm whereby I should be greatly grieved I pray you cause to be published and understood in all places of your Government that every person abide and continue in the safeguard of his own house and to take no weapons in hand nor one to hurt another upon pain of death commanding them to keep and diligently to observe our Edict of Pacification and to make the Offenders and Resisters and such as would disobey and break our will to be punished You shall assemble out of hand as great force as you can as well of your friends as of them that be appointed by me and others advertising the Captains of Castles and Cities in your Government to take heed to the safeguard and preservation of the said places so that no fault ensue on their behalf advertising me also as soon as you can what order you have given herein and how all things have passed within the circuit of your Government Hereupon I pray God to keep you Cousin in his Holy safe-guard At Paris August 24. signed Charles and underneath BRULAND Now at the same time were Orders given out by the King for all Towns and Provinces within his Power to follow the example of Paris and to murther and put to death all of the Religion and the very next month he wholly abolishes that famous Edict giving command to root out all the Protestants both from Estates and Places and at last as we shall see causes a Form of Abjuration to be made and causing it to de proclaimed That no Religion should be exercised in the Kingdom but the Romish Now we see by these Letters that the King would fain lay the blot of this foul crueltie to the antient Quarrel of the houses of Guise and Chastillon therefore the Guisans foreseeing the foulness of the fact strove as much to evade the dint of the Dishonour as the King did though the Guisans were the Plotters and chief Agents in the practical part of this cruel Tragedy whereupon they handled the matter so that the King was forced to acknowledge and avow publickly this horrid act and indeed none more fit than the King that commanded it And truly the sad effects of these unheard-of cruelties would make any one disown it and gladly would the King don so for he loved the effects and now could neither evade the dishonour nor Gods just Judgements But he is not yet ripe for them although in these many massacres he had not spared but basely caused to be butchered an infinite number of gallant Noblemen and Young Ladies with abundance of learned men many reverend old men many young Gentlewomen and Virgins many honourable Matrons of good account women with child and little infants at their mothers breasts Now the King being forced to let the world know his perjury and cruelty he labours to set a good face on his cruel heart so that the King that had the four and twentieth day of August 1572. declared by Letters to all the Provinces and several Princes abroad that the tumult in Paris arose betwixt the two parties of the Guisan and Admiral now but two dayes after being the twenty sixth of the same mouth This most mighty King and by consent of all nations commonly called the most Christian King comes into the Parliament with a great Train of his Brethren and other Princes and Lords of his Court attending him where in a full Assembly of his Council he ascends the Throne and sitting thereon he directs his Speech to this great Assembly in manner following The Kings Speech in Parlament That having been informed that the Admiral with certain of his confederates notwithstanding all his favors gratious pardons granted to their former Rebellions yet have now plotted against my person with my mother and Brethren to our utter perdition which being discovered I was forced to prevent my own ruin by Justice to procure theirs and by a speedy course have heaped on their own heads what they would have heaped on mine For this cause therefore it was that by my command the Admiral and his Complices are deservedly cut off hoping thereby that a period is not only put to their Treason against my self and Nobles but also to future troubles which would have fallen on this poor Nation to an utter ruin thereof Now although at first he had both by words and Letters laid the whole Business on the fury of a popular tumult headed by the faction of the Guisans yet now at this time unmasking his Design he discovers himself like his actions and now laid down his Reasons and grounds of this manner of proceeding against these Rebells as he calls them and so further declared That he thought it not altogether unfit to make his Magistrates acquainted with it That what was done at Paris in the late Slaughters was by his own commandment for the safety of his own life and national tranquillity and also that they might proceed with the like severity against such Traytors and Rebells of such a wicked Conspiracy and that it was a sudden thing and not premeditated a deep reach to take
in large volumes now it is reduced and fitted to the time and purses of those that had no occasion and less abilities to accomplish the perusal or purchasing of large Folio's which I think was the grand reason of stifling the knowledge hereof to many of this age Reader thou art here presented with the most horrid Rapes Murthers Perjury and Treacherous Cruelty of a Prince and Court that ever landed on European shore for in few daies all the Protestant Nobility and Gentry with Ladies and innocent Gentlewomen and children to the number of fourty thousand were inhumanely butchered and cut off by the Kings special Commandment Here thou mayest see a Prince besmearing himself with the Goar blood of his own Subjects and at last wallowing in his own we shall here see Religious Vows and Promises no stronger ties to the King and Court than a Rope of sand to a wild beast being gone so far in perjury that the Kings faith was accounted like the Greeks whose unfaithfulness to their promises is become Proverbial that when one would express perjury they termed it Greca fides for though a Creditor had ten bonds and as many Sureties and Seals yet will he find it extreme hard to accomplish his debt so when a Jew is to deal with a Genoa he puts his finger in his eye fearing his Treachery They resolve to have no other virtue rampant than perjury and cruelty Abandoning that part of Religion which ties to a strict observance of Duty Omnia Religiosa nunc ridentur they will wade no further in Religion than may serve their cruel ends insomuch that in one Town which the Protestants kept they engraved on the gate this Motto Roy sans foy ville sans peur the King had no faith nor they no fear And as the Roman Emperor Caligula said of Seneca's Works they were Arena sine calce sand without lime having no connexion so was the King of France his Solemn Oaths and Promises It is a Christian accomplishment in Princes to govern non per timorem sed per amorem as it is said of Octavus Augustus And when any judgment befalls this Nation let them remember that as they made it an Acheldema or Field of Blood so will God the place of his Plagues for who knowes not that the Blood of so many thousand souls crys to heaven for vengeance upon the third and fourth Generation and I could wish that all Protestant Princes would beware how they shake hands with such faithless People Now the right use of these sad and sudden murthers should be to learn us the necessity of being ready prepared for such violent deaths and that prosperity is as diet to us Adversity as Physick reducing to a right tast of these mortal enjoyments How happy will the Torments of cruelty be when our cyes are fixed by faith on an Eternal inheritance linking our selves in that golden Chain of Salvation which extends from Eternity to Eternity Death comes not unexpected when a soul is interessed in Christ our Saviour how necessary is it for us to live ready to dy He that too closely hugs transitories makes a rent in his constancy and a greater in his soul How can a Christians Judgement but be at nonage when he values not the true worth of Celestials but puts them in the ballance with Terrene things He indeed hath found the Philosophers stone that can turn all events into a Subjection to Gods Will. It was the gratious words of Holy Greenham having food and rayment let us take the rest as an overplus these poor Souls had no other warning peice to dy than sudden and violent deaths that like the flying fish reported to be in great hazzard by the Shark and Dolphin in the Sea yet when advanced into the air to escape he is by Birds of prey in no less danger so were these poor Saints of God in War hazardous in Peace undone What shall we say of that Religion which perjury cruelty blood and the greatest cruelties are reckoned as virtuous Jewels in the Crown of their Government they are sweet when seasonable and parallel to their murtherous Hearts and it must needs presage ruin to that Nation that stands on no other Pillars for their foundation than bloody and infamous Plots and Treachery who will not conclude that Nation lies level to justice and I wish the large field of Liberty allowed the Papists in England to walk in may not insensably grow our inavoidable and swift ruin since it is well known by all how they wait for our destruction But to contract let me intrea◠〈…〉 my sincere and publick intentions which is all I adopt to be mine and that ex abundanti amoris out of the surplusage of Love thou wilt waft my Endeavours to the Haven of thy kind embraces where I cast Anchor and rest Reader these Books following are printed for and are to be sold by Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible neer Py-Corner THe General Practice of Physick Folio Drummonds Hist of 5. Kings of Scotl. fol. The Fortune Book in fol. English Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot Fol. Mr Collings Cordials 1st 2d 3d. part quarto His Vindiciae Ministerii quarto His answer to Mr Sheppard quarto His answer to Fisher and Hammond quarto His answer to Boatman Prin Humfries qua Dr Holdsworths one and twenty Sermons quar Euclides Elements in quarto Eng. History of seven Champions quarro Packet of Letters quarto Cupids Messengers quarto The birth of Mankind or Womens book quar The perfect Pharisee under Monkish holines qu. The false Jew quarto Mr Collings 5 lessons for a Christian to learn 8. His Faith and Experience octavo Mr Wincolls Poems octava Excellency of Christ octavo Erasmus Colloquies octavo Wings and Libourns Urania Practica octavo Velitationes Polemicae octavo Janua Linguarum octavo Brinsley's Cordelius octavo Mr Sidenham's Mystery of Godliness octavo Mr Sidenham's hypocrisie discoved octavo Paul Hobson's last book of Queries octavo Watson's untaught Bridegroom twelves Place this fol i Men quartered Aliue Roasted on a spit Rauishing woomen Burning men Aliue Beating mens Braines out Ripping vp woomen w th Child Cutting Throats 300 protestants Murthered in a Church Stabbing with daggers Men Cutt in peeces The Civil Wars of France CHAP. I. The Contents THe Reign of Charls the ninth A Parliament called the Government committed to the Queen Mother during the Kings minority the names of Hugonet and Papist forbid on pain of death Prince of Conde and King of Navar in discontent departs the Court the King of Nevar made Lieutenant General and joyntly interessed in the Government with the Queen Mother the Princes desire a Toleration of Religion for the Protestants which is privately granted the Protestants multiply and the Princes protect them demanding the Queens promise for Toleration the Protestants that were in Prison for Religion freed by a Decree of the Council the Duke of Guise surrenders the Keys of the Palaces
the Catholicks cruelty This made the Papists take up couragious resolutions Mutining in divers places A mutinie in Paris and many Protestants stoned and distroyed with fire and sword especially at Paris where the poor Protestants through the violence of cruell and bloody men suffered the enemies persecution with stones staves swords and in their return they set fire on the Suburbs of St. Marceau At St. Medard they Ring the Alarum Bell they kill and wound many others they take and hang One Gabaston Knight of the warch lost his head for atempting to appease the people so suffered some others also The whole Kingdom being full of broils and in a civil flame of combustions that it seemed to all spectators as if the whole Land was turned upside down And thus were the poor Protestants at the merciless cruelty of their malitious Enemies Hereupon the Queen Mother fearing this might disquiet and annoy her Regency An Assembly of eight Parliaments and endanger the tranquillity of the Kingdom during the Kings Minority Especially fearing the Duke of Guise should be too powerfull she therefore causes to be Issued out orders for calling and assembling of the eight Parlaments of France with the Princes of the Blood Noblemen and they of the Privye Councill to consider of the estate of all the Provinces and to consult about a way to heal these breaches to her content and lasting peace of the Kingdom she knew this was the ready way to enjoy her power which must necessarily fall if either party rise if either partie prevailed in a successive power they would too soon give a pull at hers the Duke of Guise in A Rage departs the Court for Spain The Duke of Guise and his confederate Catholiks was so swelled at the heart That his breast the Poyson of his purposes could not be contained within the limits of moderation But like a rapid Torrent bandies against this course And as water cast upon lime burns inwards till it breaks without into a flame so this cruel Duke foaming with malice and cherishing those furies that Hell would cast out disaproves of this Assembly and openly enveighs against the King of Navar the Prince of Conde Admiral and chief of the Protestants and so in discontent departs the Court for Spain there to plott for effecting a tragicall and more bloody effusion of Protestant blood then by his presence could be effected in the French Court. Whereupon the Queen Mother still to strengthen hir self betwixt these two factions dissembles hir secret intentions and gives out publickly an inclination to cleav to the Protestants which indeed did astonish all that heard thereof Nay she did so hipocritically mannage her secrefie That the Admirall and all the Chief Protestants could give no other interpretation of her carriage then Reality and she the more effectually to penetrate into their perswations more to confirm their credulous opinion and perfectly to blind their eies she declares her carriage to he the bottom of her intentions the Protestants deluded by the Queens dissembling gives her A list of all their forces So making her impious treachery turn treason parent The Protestants believing all true she said were so farr deluded into a firm belief thereof That they gave her a list of two thousand one hundred and fifty Protestant churches who by their Deputies offered their Goods and persons to the King to withstand the force of the Guisants who had invited the Spaniards into France And thus with this deep dissimulation covered with fair pretexts the Protestants were drawn in to discover their strength which when shee collected her desires were satisfied with this handsome dissimulation But none could know it but the eternall and alseeing eye of God for she had so carried it that the very Catholick party thought all as reall as it was Hypocriticall At this time the King of Navar being not fully fixed in the firmament of an established mind the King of Navar turns Catholick The Reverend servant of Christ Theodora Beza laboured much to bring him to a right understanding of the truth but he like a carnall pollititian replies quod pellago se non ita commissurus esse quin quando libere pedem referre possit That he would launch no further into the deeps then he might with safety return again And so he fully declares for the Catholicks which by a little dispondency of Spirit did weaken the Protestants and strengthen the Guisants But now like lightening before death wee shall see a greater part of bloody treacherie then ever was acted in any Christian Nation For In this year 1561. mens Spirits were so malitiously bent that they were redy to receive any fire of commotion The Protestants have no security nor safety for lives or goods there was great danger for these poor Christians that professed the name of the Lord yet like palme the more depressed the more they grew like trees upon high Mountains though under the power and in the cie of the greatest storms and gusts yet are more firmly rooted then those that grow in fruitfull valies so these poor Saints of God through their affliction did increase more and more whereupon did arise to them great troubles and persecutions in regard the late edict against them gave courage to the Catholicks to persecute them by Authority by which also it did frustrate their more publick meeting And Here it is to be taken notice of That formerly the custome in France of pounishing the Protestants was besides their estates seased on for the Kings use their bodies were to be burned at the Tyrannicall request of their Lords and nobillity but now God who is rich in mercy has freed his poor servants from the unheard of and slavish bondage and given a little more liberty though against the will of his and their adversaries The eight Parliaments meets with the King and Queen Mother And now according to the forementioned order of the Queen the eight Paliaments of France meets where was present with them the King and Queen Mother and thus this great Assembly of Estates from all the Provinces meets at St. Germans in Lay near to the City of Paris where with the Royal assent of Charls the ninth Was that famous and so much celebrated edict brought forth wherein there was great Liberty to the weary Protestants that was so tossed up and down which indeed had proved more happy then I can express if they might have enjoyed the benefit of performance with as much liberty as it promised The eight Parliaments with the King and Queen decree A liberty for the Protestants but speedily a sad and cruel Massacre of 30. thousand Protestants The contents of this edict which did Invest the Protestants with these privileges were A free liberty to enjoy profess and exercise their Religion To have Assemblies and publick meetings at sermons But without the Towns and in the Subburbs onely This Edict crossing that which was made in
of his life by the common-people At Monchon he was cast in prison where a Captain and many Souldiers came and told him he should be cut in peices afterwards the Judges came and commanded him to be loaden with Irons after a while the Duke of Guise being made Governour he was cruelly tortured by straining his thumbs so hard till blood issued out they then bind his hands behind his back and tying a Rope to his thumbs they hoist him up and then suddenly twitches him down five or six times tying also great stones to his toes and so let him hang till his vitals failed him almost to death at last he was put into prison and no Chyrurgion allowed to dress his wounds although the Cords had made gashes in his flesh to the bones insomuch that he underwent great pain that he could not lift his hand to his mouth but had almost lost the use of them this did this Servant of Christ endure like a true Soldier with invincible courage and patience and by the special providence of God news was brought that the Duke of Guise was dead The very next day one Bussi had order from the Constable to let him free which yet said Bussi came and told this faithful Minister of God with all acquainting him that he should be let free but it should be to the peoples rage But let us yet see another special providence A singular token of Gods care of his faithful Ones for at the same time came by the Prince of Portion with his German Horses who sent in word to the Town that if Mr. Fournier was not speedily delivered to him and from their cruelties he would not leave so much as the tokens of a foundation but raze it to ruin as a monument of their merciless deserts Which message so terrified the enemies of this Godly soul that immediately he was safely conveyed to the Prince he gathers a Congregation and yeilds his soule to God which faithfull servant of the Lord after he had resided a little space at Ver and gathered a Congregation he presently after resigned up his soule to the Lord that gave it and so put a period to the miserable attendance of this life and begun that life of glory A Treacherous and base murther of Mounseir de St. Estiene his two Brothers and 16. more all stabbed by his own Cosen Germain Mounseir de St. Estiene in his jorney from Orleans retiring himself with his two brothers and some others for Refreshment to his own house neer Reims they were not long there till the house was beset by fifteen hundred men who being forced to yield had liberty on their words to go forth to speak with the Duke of Nevers whom as they said desired to see him and going out was there basely and treacherously murthered by the Baron Ceruy his own Cosen German so were his two Bretheren also with sixteen others basely and unworthely stabbed and distroyed without the least composition Their wives they spoyled of all they had and led away prisoners The Catholicks of Nevers on the eleventh day of May The sad slaughters at Nevers 1562. summoned into the Town many Gentlemen of the Country presently shut the gates and in three daies after fell on them and Murthered them without pitty The Minister's they cast into prison one miserably perished by their cruelty another miraculously escaped presently after bloody Fayete arrives ransacks their houses rebaptize their children being filled with his desires of bloud and 50. thousand crownes returns to his house of Auvergue La Charity yielded on Conditions yet all were put to the sword contrary to Covenant The Town of La Charity being beseiged by cruel Fayete was to him yielded on honorable terms by the Governour Issertiux which Conditions were signed and sealed the tenth day of June the Grand prior entring the Town according to conditions presently snatched the capitulation out of the Governours hand and then fell to spoil and murther so that none escaped Bibles burnt and the Protestants murthered at Amiens At Amiens all Bibles Testaments and psalms were sought for and openly with much profanness were burned the Guisans murthering and killing the poor Protestants and casting their dead bodies into the River shooting some to death and hanging others Base cruelty At Abbevilly the Lord Harcourt was slain and many others one Belliart they dragged along the Streets with his face on the ground and then drowned him At Meux 400. murthered The Protestans at Meaux being the stronger partie continued the exercise of their Religion for a while but at last the Parliament at Paris gave judgement against them whereupon a company of souldiers enters the Town disarms the Citizens and unworthyly and cowardly murthered above four hundred poor Protestants and as if it were not enough as if their blood-thirstiness could not be quenched Mounseir De'Boysy enters with souldiers Virgins a Bused in the streets children dashed against the walls committs unheard-of and inhuman villanies deflouring virgins in the open streets many massacred and drowned children dashed against the walls divers papist preists murthered some with their own hands At Troys Bibles and Books of divinity were rent and torn in pieces the Protestants murthered their houses sacked eighteen men hanged like doggs Cruelties at Troys and women dragged through the streets and cast into the River The sad murther at Bar upon Sein The sad cruelties used to the Protestants at Barr upon Seine are hardly to be compared in this first civil war although in the latter part of the book I shall let the world be accquainted with such cruelties as that the most horrid murtheres yet extant come not so near them as to bear a shaddow of comparison They murther women and maydes and cut off their breasts and took out their hearts and eat them But to our purpose this Town the Papists entered and committed such outrages and cruelties especially against women as it is not fit to be related but with an utter detestation for they spared not maides nor poor infants some of their breasts they cut off open their stomacks cutts out their hearts and in a furious manner gnawed them with their teeth boasting that they had tasted of an Huguenots heart and with hellish blasphemies they ravish women and virgins A Popish father murthers his Protestant sonn A just reward There was one Mounseir Ralet a young Advocate and son to the Kings Procter who by his fathers own procurement was murthered which was a sad and prodigious thing and in January following about fifty horse of the Garrison of Antrim surprized the Town at break of day and took it in for the Protestants and with their pistols caused him to expiate the death of his son A gallant Gentleman murthered in his own house The Peasants committed horrible murthers on the poor Saints of God Monseiur de Vigney with his wife and servants
they murthered in his own house In Sens a hundred of good birth and quallity were inhumanly and basely murthered 100. of good quality murthered at Sens the murther at Auxere women read to be delivered wurthered and slain being thrown into the River naked one hundred houses spoyled and their vines pulled up At Auxere one Cossen was barbarously Massacred they also stabed a fair young gentlewoman and cast her body into the River with many other outrages In Chastillon upon Loire they cruelly murthered men and women young and old nay they spared not women with child ready to be delivered The sad and horrible murthers committed with geat cruelty on the Saints of Christ in Maus 50. cast into apond to feed fishes At Maus they spoyled the houses of the protestants both within and without the Town for eight legues compass two hundred were cruely put to death not sparing women of quality and poor innocent children not having the least respect to their own kindred some hanged up some they beheaded others being dayly Massacred they cast into the river half dead above one hundred and twenty men and women and children were murthered in the neighbouring Villages a Captain most cruely cast fifty of these poor innocent servants of God into his fish-pond to feed his pikes and his Leiutenant fills two trenches with fifty protestants that were slain and many were thrown into ditches a Godly weaver had his throat cut ones mouth filled with leavs of the New Testament and his mouth stuffed with leaves of a New Testament which was found about him in Villages neer and further off about sixscore persons were butchered and many fields strewed with the bodies of the slain whose flesh the birds and beasts had devoured Murthers at Montagris At Montagris which was a hiding place for many poor protestant families and which was under the command and countenance of the Lady Rene of France Daughter to King Lewis the twelfth and Dutches Dowager of Ferrara To this place was sent by order of the Duke of Guise one Mallicorn a Knight of the order who with four companies enters the Town killed an antient man and threw him into the River with others committing several outrages but the virtuous Lady with the protestants was safe in the Castle this Mallicorn sends word to the Duches that he would batter down the Castle if she would not yield to deliver up the protestants into their hands But see the Galland reply of this noble and religious Lady to this murtherous villain The Christian noble answer of a virtuous Lady to the summons of a bloody murtherer I charge you to look what you enterprise for no man in the Realm can command me but the King only and if you proceed to the battery I will stand in the breach to trie whteher you dare kill the Daughter of a King neither do I want means or power to be revenged on your boldness even to the infants of your rebellious race this gallant Ladyes Answer overturned the bold attempt of this fellow to a dishonourable departure At Gyen a child cut in two and the liver eaten At Gyen amongst other insolent cruelties and outrages these furies of hell and children of the Devils begetting committed such an horrible cruelty as common impiety would not foster for they cut a young child in two peices alive and with a horrible fury they eat his Liver Murthers at Aurilac At Aurilac Bresons enters rhe Town murthers eight men spoils the Town and Castle and basely ravishes wives and maidens In Molins many hanged without Law In Molins Monsieur de Montare gave his Troops liberty to spoil the protestants houses and without any form or shadow of Law hanged two Artificers and four others drowned five more and suffered the hangman to hang three merchants of Dauphine besides many others they murthered Neer Issoudun at a village called Lisayâ—n thirteen young men of Issoudun were beaten down in the water A sad slaughter and at Issoudun it self Sarzay enters and imprisons the protestants and most of them miserably died in prison being smothered under the ruins of a Tower A promise of free liberty yet presently all murthered At Angiers Puygaillard a Gascoin Captain sent by the Duke of Montpenseir enters the the Town promising the Protestants a free exercise of their Religion but in two dayes after their houses were spoiled and the prisons by his command were filled with men and women and fourscore of both sexes were murthered by the cruelty of the Papists with cruel torments and inventions of inhumanity 80. murthered women of all qualities were put into sacks and dragged through the mire of the streets and their bodies thrown into the River also virgins shamefully ravished and they that resisted their lustful Villanies were presently stabbed with daggers And the Edict of the Parliament of Paris was published that none should exercise the protestant Religion whereupon many Gentlemen and others about Angiers lost both life and goods A guilt Bible they hung upon a Halbeird and in a Triumphant and blaspheming way cryed Behold truth hanged the truth of the Huguenots Horrible and unsufferable blasphemy the truth of all the Devils behold the mighty God will speak behold the everlasting God will speak and coming to the bridge they threw it into the River crying louder Behold the truth of all the Devils drowned An aged Gentlewoman beaten to death dragg'd through the Town calling her the Mother of all the Huguenots Two young maids ravished before their Fathers face A valiant Captain after promise of life yet contrary to faith given was basely murthered Treacherus Cruelty breaking his body upon a Cross and so left him hanging in great misery till he dyed A Ministers eyes put out and his body burned At Ligueul they hanged the poor Protestants put out a Ministers eyes and then burned him and thus they run up and down roving and raging burning both men women and children without any mercy or pitty they flay'd a young man alive A Minister at 75. years drowned and thirty protestants The Village of Aze they burn down murther thirty Protestants and drown a godly Minister John de Tour at seventy five years old At Paris in the year fifteen hundred sixty two a decree was made by the Parliament of Paris commanding all Catholicks presently to rise in arms Men encouraged by the parliament to forsake their trades to murder the protestants to sound the bells in every place to destroy all of the Religion reformed without respect of quality sex or age and so to root them out utterly whereupon all Rogues Vagabonds and Rascals rise in arms forsaking their callings to help forward the murthering the poor protestants whose rage was such for their Ruin that they looked like Tygres and Lions rather then men In Tours one hundred and fourty were destroyed and cast into the River 140. murthered in
Protestants in France during this Civil War they are so sad they need no comment An unparralled murther but indeed that which follows is not to be paralleld for perfidious treachery Breach of the faith of a King and Court and for hellish and unheard-of cruelties sad murthers in cold blood upon Lords Gentlemen poor Ladies Rivers swimming with bodies and died with blood Indeed the most sad Tragedie that ever was yet acted upon the theatre of the world by Turks Heathens or Christians CHAP. IV. The Contents THE King and Queen Mother lay siege to Haver de grace which surrendered on Henourable tearms The King is declared out of his minority and swears to observe the Edict of Pacification but keeps not his oath nor promise The Council of Trent meet a League is made between the King of France and King of Spain called the Holy League the Cardinal of Lorain posts to Rome to desire the Pope to cause the French to observe the decrees of the Council of Trent Great heart-burnings arise The Protestants dayly complain to the King of their injuries desiring him to keep to his covenant but to no purpose The King and Queen Mother in progress rides through the Nation and secretly confer with the Popes Messenger and the King of Spain They come to Lyons and forbid the exercise of the Protestant Religion Many Protestants cruelly and inhumanly murthered by the Catholicks in several places The King and Queen Mother treacherously leavie six thousand Switzers to destroy the Protestants Letters are intercepted which discover a bloody plot against the Prince of Conde the Admiral and all the Protestants The Prince Admiral and Principal Protestants seize on Troys Lyons and Tholouse The King and Queen Mother forced to ret reat to Paris Thâ—â— beginning of the second war the King sends an Herauld to the Prince of Conde and Admiral Their answer The Principal of both Parties treat but to no purpose The Prince and Admirals answer to their Demands The Protestants never embrace a more sure ruin then a peace with the King The Armies meet and engage the success The Prince of Conde and Admiral march to join with Prince Casimir who had raised twelve thousand men for their aid The Duke of Lorrain made General of the Kings Army Prince Casimirs Noble Declaration in defence of the Protestants The Prince of Conde's Gallant speech to the Army A gallaut Resolution in a free Contribution through the Princes Army Prince of Conde and Admiral join with Prince Casimirs Army The Prince of Conde besieges Chartres The Queen Mothers treachery and speech a peace concluded but full of Treason Guile and hypocrisie The Protestants no sooner dismiss their Armies and deliver up their Garrisons but are speedily filled with Souldiers of the Kings A bloody Cabinet Council erected by the King They plot to cut off the Protestants but are discovered The Kings Army suddenly begirts the chief of the Protestants but they escape with their families to Rochel The Queen of Navar comes to Rochel with horse and foot Cardinall Castillon flies to England disguised The Prince of Conde and Admiral publish a manifesto to all Christian Princes the Queen of Navar declares for the Protestants A bloody Edict is published by the King that none should profess any other Religion but the Romish the King of France strangely declares to all the world That he meant not what he said WE concluded the latter part of the second chapter with a Peace concluded at Orleans whereupon was publickly proclamed a free liberty for the Protestants according to the Edict of Pacification Now the King and Queen Mother endeavour to reduce Haverdegrace to their obedience which the Protestant party had delivered up to the Queen of England as aforesaid The Kings Army besieges Haverdegrace To which purpose they lay siege the Town holds out a good while till at last being sore streightned and no hopes left of relief they come to conditions of surrenders but before Hostages were delivered and English Fleet of sixty brave Ships appears under sayl fleering directly to the Port but the Earl of VVarwick like a true hearted Englishman scorning to dishonour his Nation with such perfidious treachery as most of the French acted he sends word to the Admiral of the Fleet Honourably surrendred that the Town was to be surrendred that day being the seventeenth day of July and so performed his Contract to his great Honour I cannot compare this noble act to any but that brave Roman Consuls who being taken by the Carthaginians in Africa had liberty given to return to Rome to effect the release of some Prisoners and in them his own in exchange promising to return prisoner if he could not Now when he came to the Senate he perswades them not â—o accept of the conditions and so according to his promise returned and was miserably tormented to death Oh that it might be said so of our Charls the Ninth that he had but been regardful of his Oaths and covenants then had not we been partakers of such a sad spectacle of cruelty by reading this bloody Tragedie The Catholicks now after this peace at Orleans feared the greatest visible power rested in the Prince of Conde So the Queen Mother treads in her old paths of deceit intending by her cunning subtilty to cut off all pretences of right to the Government by the Princes of the blood The King declared out of his minority and swears in the presence of God to olserve the Edict of Pacification to which purpose she causes the King now but fourteen years old to be declared King and past his Minority She carries his Majestie to Roan and there the fifteenth day of December 1563. they went Solemnly with all the Lords of the Court and Officers of the Crown to the Parliament Where in the presence of the Counsellours he received the usual Ceremonies used in France at the Coronation the Parliament publishing the Declaration of his Majority the King there publickly protested and swore in the presence of Almighty God That be would for ever after duly observe the Edict of Pacification threatning all opposers for such was his express will and pleasure Thus all things seem in a peaceable way one would now think so much blood expences of treasure and a consumption of his subjects would weary any nation and make any King rejoice For a peace is the more sweetned by the effects of a Civil war already felt for two extreams illustrate each other The peace not kept But alas this peace succeeds not the hopefull expectation of his peaceable subjects in many places it was not observed The Council of Trent meets The King of Spain and France make a league and call it the Holy league And now assembles that Council known by the name of the Council of Trent who meet for the maintainance of the Catholick Religion Now the Cardinal of Lorrain being an active Agent to forward any design
from the King and Queen Mother as was not fit to be published The King for a secure mannagement of the Wars against the King of Spain The Kings strange plot to surprize Rochel gave Commission to Strozzi and the Baron de li Guard to rig forth ships from Burgess and Rochel and to surprize any Vessels that were going through the English Seas to the aid of the Duke of Alva in the Low-Countreys the Spanish Embassadour complains hereof but these two Captains had secretly and privately an underhand Commission to seize on Rochel and by open or secret force to get into their power for his Majesty although all was carried fair on against the Duke of Alva The King also gave command to the Admiral to send Espials into Peru and Island in the New found World which being plentiful of Gold the Spaniard had possessed himself thereof and there to attempt what he could against the King of Spain which business according to his Majesties command the Admiral undertook committing it to one of his Gentlemen who with a certain Portugal skilful in those navigations he had joined in Commission The King heaps unexpressible favours on the Admiral and Friends Now the King heaped unexpressable favours on the Admiral Count Rochfoucault and Theligni with the rest of the principal Protestants and chief Noblemen of the Religion for what ever was taken from any of them in time of the Civil Wars was now most lovingly restored by the Kings command and if any one that the King could learn was a friend to the Admiral to him he did shew singular respect even to the height of an unimaginable dissimulaeion He commanded one time to be given to the Admiral one hundred thousand pounds of his own treasury in recompence of his great losses When the Cardinal of Chastillon formerly fled to England disguised and having great Revenues and Wealth his death being known to the King he did give to the Admiral all the fruits of the whole year with all his rich and costly Houshold-stuff and though all former Admirals in Council and publick Ceremonies had ever given place to the Marshall of France yet for the Admirals greater honour it was the Kings will and pleasure that he should sit next Monseiur de Momorancy who was the first Marshall and above all the rest The K. desires the Duke of Savoy to favour the Protestants The King also writes to the Duke of Savoy that for his sake he would please to be favourable to the Protestants under his Dominion it should ly upon him as an acceptable favor It is not to be thought what kindnesses the King shewed to the Protestants even to the great amazement of the Catholicks and rejoicing of the Protestants The K. so far dissembles that by his shew of respects to the Protestants the Catholicks suspect him who poor souls thought all true that he said but this love proved bitter hatred like Judas kiss nay the King did so carry it that the Catholicks began to surmise and say that the King did not only favour the Protestants but would himself turn one shortly And in regard there was a mighty enmity betwixt the Duke of Guise and the Admiral by reason of a report fixed on the Admiral as if he should be an instrument of his Fathers death The Admiral and Duke of Guise reconciled and the Admiral declared not guilty of the Duke of Guises death the King therefore to make up all breaches and in order to a perfect peace he prescribes a perfect form of Reconciliation the foundations whereof was laid six years ago in the Town of Molins where the King summoning the principal estates of his Kingdom did on consultation and deliberation declare and pronounce the Admiral not guilty of the death of the Duke Guise a thing his Majestie was before bound in conscience to do but now was acted and done as a piece of good policy this block being taken away as an advance for the Admiral to the Court. But as we said before the most solemn bond and ty for a secure peace is the Lady Margarite Sister to the King of France to be given in mariage to the Prince of Navar who was Son to the most virtuous Queen of Navar. who also had all the last civil war been General of the Protestant Cause and couragiously defended it to his Eternal Praise which mariage the King did declare That he did it for the effecting and establishing a durable peace and as a signal testimony of his loyall affections to the Protestants And yet in the mean while the Papists in Roan murthered divers Protestants and grievously beat others as they came from a Sermon Many Protestants murthered in Roan And in regard that it was objected That the King of France his Sister was of the Roman Religion and the Prince of Navar a Protestant it could not well be effected to a good purpose To which the King answered he would free her by a Dispensation from the Pope that no Impediment might stand in the way to so great a good as a sure peace betwixt him and his Subjects nothing being more delightful or desired by him As soon as this was spread to the Courts of Forein Princes it did amaze the Popish Party that ever the King should proceed in behalf of Hereticks But on the contrary it did exceedingly possess the hearts of the Prince The K. plot takes effect and Admiral and all forein Princes of the same Religion with exceeding joy being such a large demonstration of the Kings affection and as a Seal of fidelity to all he promised and did also drive out of their hearts all jealousies of plots or secret Contrivances but the Admiral which had most reason and was most backward to believe all reall yet he at this time was now most forward to believe and most ready to be confirmed not only by this but also by a Letter which the King sent him by his Son Theligni The Admiral at last perswaded and deluded by a Letter from the King under the Kings own hand and Seal assuring the Admiral That whatever he should do in the Business of the war in the Low Countries against the King of Spain should be by his Majesty allowed of and ratified as if done by his special command such was his alluring baits and pretences of good will and trust to the Admiral And thus the poor Protestant Princes are too much perswaded of the Kings faith who intended their ruin without remedy we shall shortly see them come to Paris and embrace the mountains of treacherous pretences of faith and affection and so be swallowed up in their Enemies malitious and unparallel'd cruelty for all the huge promises of the Kings stood but as an Earnest till their plot was ripe and then they are more swift to shed blood than real to what they promise and truly such a piece of Kingly tteachery is not in any age to be
parrallelled CHAP. VI. The Contents THe Queen and Prince of Navar with the Prince of Conde comes to Court the Articles of the War of the Low Countries put in writing the Mariage between the Lady Margarite and Prince of Navar agreed on the King heaps honours on the Admirall and friends the King invites the Admiral to Court and protests his own life is envelloped in his a cross in derision of the Protestants is pulled down by his Majesties command the Plot almost discovered by a lively instance the King threatens severe punishment to any that shall affront the Admirall or Protestants the Admiral comes to Court and welcomed the King allowes 50. for his Guard the Count Lodowick of Nassaw enters the Low Countries and takes in Montz A league offensive and defensive with Queen Elizabeth of England but proved a deep plot the Queen of Navar poisoned by the Kings Apothecary by whose death the Prince is King of Navar the joyful and bloody mariage of the King of Navar and the Lady Margarite the Kings plot to take Rochel the names of the Protestants in Lyons is taken in a bloody Book sad complaints commeth to the Admiral and great suspition of a bloody Massacre at hand but he believed it not the Admiral from a Window shot in both Arms with a Harquebuzier as he walked in Paris the King in great rage dissembles his treachery but publishes his hypocrisie by a shew of grief and discontent he that shot the Admiral escapes having fresh horses waiting for him the Admiral shews himself a true Christian and patient sufferer the matter examined by Judges and the Issue he that shot the Admiral had commission from the King for it the Admiral like to dy requests the Kings visit the King and Queen Mother with many Attendants perform his request they profess sorrow and dissemble wonderfully the King and Admiral discourse alone the Admiral commits his injuries to the Lord the King intreats the Admiral to lodge in the Loure the Admiral refuses a great suspition of Treason by a sudden speech of the Count de Retz in the Protestants hearing the Admiral requested a Guard for his person which the King grants the Admiral and Protestants advised of their ruin but they depended on the Kings promises carriages mariage and solemn Oaths for their security and safety THe last Chapter concluded with the great favours of the King to the Protestants whereby he had so won into their affections and to perswade them all he said was true and to embrace his cruelty for loyalty now in this chapter we shall see the effects of his desires accomplished for we shall behold all the Nobles of the Protestant Religion and Princes with the most of the Gentry environed in Paris by the Treacherous baits of the Kings allurements The Queen of Navar with her Son the Prince and the Prince of Conde with a numerous train of the Nobility Gentry of the Protestants all come to the Court with many brave Commanders But Oh! my heart bleeds to think of the bloody issue In the beginning of June the Queen of Navar and Connt Lodowick of Nassaw arrived at the French Court at Paris the Count came to receive orders about the War in the Low Countries the Queen of Navar was courteously invited by the King to help prepare all things fitting for the Wedding who to that purpose came and was received with a joyful welcome both of the King and whole Court but as now we see their faces smiling with a good aspect so we shall shortly see their hearts full of poison Two daies after arrives the Prince of Navar the Prince of Conde accompanied with the Count de Rochfoucault with all the Trains of the Princes being the chief Commanders Cavalliers and Gentlemen of the Religion amongst which was brave Pilles Briquemault and Pluveault Collonels and resolute Souldiers who in time of the War through their undaunted and resolute valour for the Protestant cause may challenge a right of honour amongst the prime in France their courage being such as their Enemies yielded to them much glory and renown as well as felt the power thereof Amongst the rest also came to Court that famous Commander the Sicur de Guerchy that defended the City Sancere where all miseries were endured and their enemies cruel mercy a place which was driven to such extream wants as no filthy thing was left unfed upon also came the Marquess de Revel the Sieurs de Nove de Collumbiere one Lavardin a famous Commander of Horse with many Noble Lords and gallant young Gentlemen all Protestants in the Bud of their years with a great many more â—f quality and reputation but alas we shall see these poor innocent Gentlemen basely murthered by the Kings command and so deprived of all that Gallantry which their sprightful valour promised to fill the World withal Articles of the Low Countrey war put in writing The Count of Nassaw had with the King concluded on Articles for the Low Country war which Articles were put in writing So that we may say the King used the Count and the Prince of Orange in this War as the Monky did the Cats foot to pull the Chessnuts out of the fire Articles of the mariage And now to the mariage of the Lady Margaret and Prince of Navar the agreement being made That the Prince of Navar should have with the Lady Margaret four hundred thousand Ducats whereof three hundred thousand should be paid by the King and security given by the Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou the mariage to be in the City of Paris and now Christian Reader the plot begins The King advances a Gentleman of the Admirals to high Honour his name Cavagnes a Gentleman of great Worth and really honorable in himself for excellent parts and no less valour whom the King The Admiral intreated by the K. to come to Court the better to work his Designs sends as Messenger to the Admiral to intreat his presence at Paris in order to honour the King and Court in this mariage as also to consult about the War against the King of Spain assuring him that the King intends his safety in that City as much as his own and that although the Parisians did cordially hate him by reason of their great superstition in that City being with seditious preaching of Moncks and Fryers dayly inflamed to cruelty and bloodshed against the Protestants yet his Majestie would take such care of his person as he should be as safe as the watchfull eye and command of a King would make him A stone Cross pulled down by the K. command at the Admiralls request The King finding a stone cross erected in Paris in a reproachful Triumph against the Protestants in time of the Civil Wars did at the request of the Admiral pul it down in regard it was a publick occasion of offence And thus the King and his Council were hid with the love-hood
his most Solemn Vows and Protestations which by the Law of God and Nations he was bound to keep but know saies this noble Prince that for my Religion it is so closely enshrined in a fixed resolution to preserve with my soul that it is beyond the reach of Mortality and I hope by Gods grace am so resolved that loss of life shall not shake my steddy soul to batter my conscience And though your great threatnings peirce my understanding yet shall they not make me lose my hold of that Religion which by Gods grace is planted and by your promises and oaths freely granted to me the free exercise of and as for my body and goods you may use as you please but my unspotted soul is in the hands of God Many Nobles and brave Commanders that waited on the K. of Navar and Prince of Conde by the K. order and in his fight are cut in peices crying out to his Oaths and Promises Brave Monsieur de Piles his sad death lamented and pittied by his enemies yet basely murthered in the K. fight This notable answer of this tender young Prince did so move his raging cruelty that letting loose the reins of his furious indignation he calls him Rebell and the Son of a Rebellious person with horrible threatnings that he should lose his life if within three daies he did not obey his command and without any more ado he assaults him with a furious countenance issuing out these terrible words Mass Death or Bastile But now their poor Friends that waited upon them being many gallant Gentlemen as also their Servitors in their chambers their Schoolmasters and those that had the bringing them up were thrust out one by one among the crowd of Murtherers being the K. Guard of Switzers that stood in two ranks prepared for blood and cruelty These Gentlemen crying out to the Kings Oaths Promises and fidelity were nevertheless by the K. command and in his own sight unmercifully hewen and cut in pieces There did dy of note amongst these in the Loure the Marquess de Rennet with several others of noble blood as also many brave Gentlemen but no mans death was so much bemoaned of many both friends and enemies as brave Monsieur de Piles whose valour though great yet could not be victor over his Religious and Godly zeal whose great courage and greater Christianity fought for Mastery for he had defended as aforesaid the little Town of St. Jean de Angeli against the K. great Army for fourty daies who at last yielded not so much to their valour as their number There this brave Commander got such Renown that of his Enemies who felt his valor he was highly honoured and was thought to be beloved and much esteemed of by the King This brave de Piles I say with Leranne Odou's Son were both lodged by the Kings command all night in a Wardrope next the King of Navars own chamber but this command of the Kings was looked on by the poor Gallant Gentlemen rather to be an act of special favour then base treachery these noble Commanders a little before day hearing a great noise of running of men in Armour with doleful cryings and howlings of the slain for mercy wondered what should be the matter and so arose who were no sooner up but de Naunce approaches their chamber and tells them it was the Kings Commandment that they should come down into the Court leaving their weapons behind them and so to depart out of the Castle He disclaims against the Kings treachery Proclaiming his Trayterous infidelity and cruelty in the Kings hearing Now when this brave Monsieur de Piles saw himself disarmed and thrust out amongst the murthering Souldiers who stood ready to kill him and viewing the sad spectacles of so many of so many of Gods people already slain he cryes out with a loud voice to the peircing of the Kings ear protesting against the Trayterous infidelity of his bloody cruelty that Covenants nor Oaths could not bind his loose hands and cruel heart no more than fetters can ty the raging Ocean but who is deaser than he that will not hear for his words peirced the air but not this Tyrants heart So having a rich Cloak he takes it off and gives it an acquaintance Saying Take here this token of Piles and let posterity know poor Piles most shamefully cowardly and unworthily slain by the perfidious command of a perjured King Oh! my good and noble Monsieur de Piles replyed he I am none of them I thank you for your Cloak but I will not receive it on that condition He is thrust out amongst the Murtherers slain so immediately Monsieur de Piles was thrust through the body with a Partisan by one of the Kings Guard and so was there basely murthered and slain And thus died this most noble and valiant Gentleman pittyed by his Enemies that knew him to be a valiant Commander thus was he haled to a cowardly death that never knew what compulsion meant but when his virtues and valour incited him to good actions so his body was thrown into the quarry with the rest the beholders crying out these are the Traytors that plotted our destruction and would have killed our King Now it pleased God to dispose of Leranne otherwise who being thrust through the Body with a sword escaped by running into the Queen of Navars chamber who preserved him from their cruelty and presently obtained his pardon and also by the assistance of her own Doctor of Physick he recovered and lived 200 Gallant Noblemen and Gentlemen basely slain by the K. command Amongst these Gentlemen and at the same time was also murthered Pontbreton Pluviault Bandine Francourt Chancellour to the King of Navar Pardillan Lavardin and other chief Commanders Gentlemen to the number of two hundred whose cryes no more peirced the Kings cruel heart than an arrow can an Adamantine Rock Count De Montgomery and the Vidam of Charteres with some others escape to England Now it fell out by Gods good providence otherwise with those of the Protestants that lodged in the Fauxburg At St. Germain beyond the Sein amongst whom was the Count de Montgomery and the Vidame of Charteres who presaging some intended mischief having a cleer foresight of this Tempest provided for an escape and so would by no means be drawn to lodge with the Admiral who now hearing the noise and understanding the matter instantly fled but were quickly persued by their grand enemie the Duke of Guise who as soon as the day had relieved the night passed the water with many horse and foot and overtaking the Protestants in their flight found some without shoes some without arms others without Saddles some without bridles all equally unable to make resistance and so were without mercy scattered and cut off the Count De Montgomery and Vidame of Charteres with about ten in company by the good mercy of God saved themselves and after many
dangers and difficulties got to the Sea side and so escaped over to England bringing sad news in their dejected countenances for the loss of their dear and pretious Friends who were also as kindly welcomed by our good Queen Elizabeth as safely escaped from the cruelty of their treacherous and perjured King Whilst these bloody and unheard of crueltys were committed in Paris A bloody plot against Rochel but prevented Strozzi the Kings Admirals lay hovering at Rochel endeavouring to surprize it under pretence of a Banquet to be made for his Friends of the Castle of La Cheine but being discovered he retreated without the effects of his desire or performance of the Kings command The Protestants murthered at La Charite The murthers at Paris is renewed next day But the poor Protestants of La Charite as aforesaid was entraped by the Italian horse and were now put to the Sword But to return to the bloody City of Paris the next day the slaughter was renewed for all that was found hidden in corners or private places of the City were all sought out brought forth and murthered insomuch that the day before and this day were massacred in Paris above ten thousand Protestants of all degrees and sexes the very common Labourers Porters and the most rascally and desperate villains of the City did this day abuse the dead bodies by pulling off their cloaths and throwing them naked into the River of Sein The places of preferment which now lay empty by reason of this horrid massacre were now by the King given to whom he pleased The Admirals office he gave to the Marquess de Villars c. And so like a true Tyrant leaves nothing his poor Subjects can call their own but their miseries In this butcherly Massacre at Paris were sacked above four thousand houses and above five hundred Barons Knights and Gentlemen who had held the chiefest imployments in the War with many noble and gallant yong Ladies and Gentlewomen that had now purposly met together from all parts to rejoice in honour of the King of Navars mariage with the L. Margaret who poor Noblemen Gentlemen Ladies thought of nothing more then of jollity and pleasures but now suffer the Tyrannical rage of a furious King and bloody death to be pittied by all that shall hear this sad story for poor Ladies they expected no such tragical welcome from a Royal King contrary to his Oaths and their spotless innocency and it must needs stick as the greatest badge of inhumanity and cowardice nay a true character of a bad cause To murther like Devils not fight like men Immediately after these unheard of murthers were acted in Paris the King not yet glutted with blood sends Messengers by post to all parts of the Kingdom often shifting horses for more speed with express command to all other Cities to follow the example of Paris commanding all Protestants which were amongst them to be slain and yet at the same time the same King writes other Letters wherein he laid the fault of the Murthers upon the Admiral and the Duke of Guise Now this command of the King to cut off all the Protestants in all Towns and Cities under his command it cannot he expressed how chearfully willingly and readily they were obeyed by the greatest part of the Cities in France for on the receipt of his Majesty Letters they fell on the Protestants at Meaux Troys Orleans and other parts murthering them without all pitty And now let us a little read with melting hearts the sad affliction of Gods Church let us bring the sad ruins of a good cause to our neer view by a spiritual improvement as a prospect draws the object nearer for we must now relate the sad catastrophe of many thousands of poor Christians who fell under the cruel and bloody command of the King to all his Magistrates which indeed is not to be expressed what sad cruelties were committed to the wonderful astonishment of all that hears or reads it for no sooner does the King let loose his cruel commands but speedily the bloody Papists break out with horrid Massacres more like Devils than men For now in Paris the Prisons that had any Protestants by which reason they escaped for a time were now brought forth and basely slain by the multitude of murtherers in which were three gallant Gentlemen of great reputation viz. Captain Monius a very valourous and stout Gentleman next Lomen Secretary to the King and greatly honored and esteemed for his faithful service in his place and lastly Chappes an antient Lawyer of fourscore years And was also of great renown and fame in the Court of Paris all three were basely murthered as cannot be expressed Amongst the rest must be set forth that unparallel'd bloody and treacherous death of Monsieur de la Place President of the Court of Wards which must I say for the strangness of the murther begg leave to have place in this history Their comes a Captain armed to the Gentlemans house and acquaints him that the D. of Guise had slain the Admiral by the Kings commandment and also many other Protestants but out of his deserts he desired to protect him from their fury with all desiring to see his Gold which he might as well bestow on him for saving him as on others for destroying him the Lord de la Place admires at the Captains audatious and petulant demeanour and so confidently required of him whether he thought there were a King or no the Captain blaspheming desired him to go to the K. to know his pleasure the Lord De la Place thinking danger too near absented from him to a place of better secutity the Captain hereupon plunders his house This poor Gentleman seeking shelter in three houses for his life was refused and so at last was forced to return to his own house again where finding his wife very pensive and sad he rebuked and exhorted her not to be so full of dispondency of spirit for death was the utmost and heaven the crown of their afflictions and sufferings and so spoke fully and sweetly of the promises of God which jointly knit their hearts together in comfort and so calling together his Family he sweetly exhorted them expounding out of a chapter to them then went again to prayer and so resolved with the assistance of Christ to suffer all Torments of death rather than dishonour God in the least drawing back presently after comes the Provost Marshal to his house with many Archers with a pretence to secure him and conduct him to the King who answered that he freely desired to continue his obedience to the King but could not see how to escape the fury of the present danger by continual massacres Presently after comes the Provost des Marchands with order to bring him to the King but he excused it as before but he would not have any delay or excuse so that this Noble Lord resolves to meet death by a Christian preparation and
of abject and forlorn fellows That it s credibly written by good Authors that there could not be so few as fourty thousand souls cut off in few days by this sad cruelty and Massacre I find it also recorded by good Authors that many men of quality who were both Religious and the most ingenuous Papists whispered of this cruelty and falshood so clearly acted by the King in his special commandment Histories cannot be produced to parallel this cruelty The bloody command of King Mithridates who with a Letter and Messenger put to death one hundred and fifty thousand Roman Citizens that were all scattered in sundry parts about their Merchandize This I say cannot reach this Kings Treachery for the reasons aforesaid The Tragical Histories of the K. of Spains Murthers in Hispaniola though they transcend in number yet not in the nature of the offence although it is recorded that in seventeen years he destroyed six Millions of poor Indians roasting some throwing others alive to be devoured of wild Beasts yet cannot it come near to our sad story We may compare it to Silla who by a base Proscription in one City cast out four thousand and seven hundred Citizens wherof one hundred and fourty were Senatours and not long after the Triumvirs proscribed three hundred Senatours and two thousand Roman Knights and many other crueltyes And as Q. Catulus said of these cruelties so may I well apply it to these sad disasters Cum quibus tandem victuri sumus in bello armatos in paceâ— inermes occidimus with whom at last shall we inhabit if in war we cut off armed men and in peace disarmed The same Silla after he had given his Faith for the preservation of four Legions of his Enemies for all they implored his merciless trechery for favour and pitty yet he commanded them all to be cut off Peter of Arragon which destroyed eight thousand French in the Island of Sicily is but a flea-bit to this cruelty Many other examples of cruelty might be ushered in upon the Stage of Observation but what should we do with any more unless we could bring one to parallel it which by the narrowest search into all History I think cannot be done Indeed none of these I have named can fix on the borders of this Cruelty they did it against their Enemies some of them against a forein Nation but this King Charls against his own Subjects and under the peaceable protection of a Loving King as they thought Those Tyrants owned their bloody acts and gave reasons for it but our King Charls hid his cruelties in the bosom of his Councils and varnisht them so with fine-spun pretences that all he did looked not like what he said till God would not let it be hid but forced him to confess it to all the world The Protestants never could be got to yield to his Power but his faith and promises which they depended upon as a sure staff and prop to lean upon in all times of disturbance and tumults else would their force and valour never have stooped to his rotten faith and withered promises we see his promises and Oaths were linked together like Ropes of sand he intended not to ty himself by the most solemn Oaths and Engagements but Others must be tyed to their Ruin by them What unworthy waies and means this King took unbecoming the Majesty of a King to feed his cruel and bloody heart making use of the mariage of his own Sister as a bait to this horrid villany and so abused the mariage bed with a bloody Tragedy besprinkling her wedding Robes with blood which indignity and dishonour no Nation under the Sun either of former or of the ages since can forget or parallell It is a piece of such base Treachery as we shall see condemned by the practice of heathens that had only the light of nature it is such a sin as God often times repaies with his Judgements The Story of Camillus Camillus with the Roman Army having besieged the Falerians a School-master of the City one day betrayed all his poor Schollars to the Roman Army by leading them out to play at last brought them into the Enemies Camp so was carried to Camillus and then said Sir I have here brought you all the Children of the City and delivered them up into your hands that so you may have the City on your own terms But Noble and brave Camillus scornfully and Christianly answered That a Noble General should seek Victory rather by valour than the Assistance of such base Treachery And so worthily abhorring this base perfidiousness he commanded the School-master to be stripped and then to be whipped back to the City by his own Scholars which as soon as the Citizens from off the Walls perceived they were so taken with this Noble Act that they presently made peace with the Romans Thus is Treachery and Gallantry rewarded at once When the Sabines besieged the Castle of Rome the Governours daughter of the Castle betrayed it to the Sabines on condition to have all the braslets of gold which being promised she secretly led them in at gate in the night and afterwards Tacius the General bid all the Souldiers follow this Example to perform his promise who threw his Braselet and Buckler also that he wore on his Arm The Souldiers doing the like she was presently for her Treachery rewarded with death Ariftomenes King of the Messenians being expelled his own Kingdom by the Lacedemonians was forced to retire in flight to the King of Arcadia for succour but being of a resolute nature resolved to be revenged upon Sparta whilest his own Countrey was spoyled by the Lacedemonians but the King of Arcadia most treacherously discovered it to the Lacedemonians for which perfidiousness his own subjests stoned him cast him into an abject place and set up a Pillar with this inscription Difficile est hominem perjurum fallere Divos Here was an exemplary punishment of an unworthy King it is said that the bloody and Deecitful man shall not live out half his daies which was seen by our cruel and bloody King for few of them that had a hand in the Massacre in France but by a Divine hand of Providence they were selected out to their just punishment and were deservedly slain at the siege of Sancere and Rochel And the King himself died miserably at the age of five and twentieth years his blood issuing out in all parts of his Body Oh! the Heavy Judgements that follow breach of promise are many from the Scriptures The Dishonour that accrews to such an Action in a King is great and is condemned by these two or three examples not unworthy our serious perusal The famous story of Attilius Regulus Attilius Regulus General of the Romans being overcome and taken Prisoner by the Carthagenians was afterward upon his word admitted to journey to Rome with conditions of peace which he thinking dishonourable advised the Citizens not to accept thereof
and though he knew death would ensue yet he to keep his Oath and promise turned back and many others that came with him though much intreated by wife Parents and children yet returned with him to their Enemies according to their Oath though thay were sure of death Now it hapned that two of these returned not and kept not their promises but they were branded with such infamy that at last they slew themselves Darius Junior accounted nothing more sacred than keeping his Oaths and Covenants Fabius Maximus Fabius Maximus having contracted with Hannibal for Redemption of the Roman Captives sent to Rome for the monies which the Senate refused yet Fabius rather than break his promise sold his Estate and discharged his Covenant Lovangus King of China Lovangu King of China being besieged in the City of Hangcheu by the Tartarian Army he kneeled on the Walls and desired that his life might satisfy for theirs of the City in these words Spare not me for I will willingly be my Subjects victime Oh rare Love of a King to his Subjects there wanted Brave Alexander or Caesar to crown this illustrious testimony of Love to a people by saving his willing offer of life which the Tartars spared not I shall only lay down remarkable judgments of God from Scripture and Examples Historical upon perjury breach of promise and covenants which are odious before God good men and Heathens Philip of Macedon It is left to posterity on record that Philip of Macedon left such infamy behind him through the light esteem and low reverence of a Solemn Oath and his faith given in Leagues that his posterity suffered great and heavy Judgements from God as a just reward of such a great sin himself at the age of forty six years was slain and his family quite rooted out his Son was killed by his Wife Olympias another Son which he had by Cleopatra was tormented to death in a brazen Bull the rest of his Sons died the like death and his great son Alexander died miserably and suspected to be poisoned In the 34. chap. of Jeremiah there is a lively instance of Gods Just Judgement threatened for breach of promise read from the tenth verse to the end of the Chapter God will not be mocked In the 17. of Ezckiel ver 18 19 20. and 21. are these words Seeing he despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant when lo he had given his hand and hath done all these things he shall not escape Therefore thus saith the Lord God as I live surely mine Oath that he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his own head c. In the 2. of Samuel 21. ver 1 2. there is Gods Judgments also against Covenant-breakers a famine year after year for three years together and why but because Saul had shed the blood of the Gibeonites against Gods Commandement and his own Engagement and Gods wrath could not be appeased till seaven of Sauls Sons were hanged Oh! the Just and heavy Judgements of the Lord against this sin t is a scarful thing to fall into the hands of the living God for God is a consuming fire and with God is terrible Majesty Many are the Judgements of the Lord against this Sin both in Princes and people I shall only give a few more from History and proceed to the latter part of this Tragical Massacre King of Sparta Lisander King of Sparta used to say Boys were deceived with dice and Cockles but men with Oaths for he made no conscience of them But God punished him accordingly for he was slain at the Walls of the Thebans and this was him that first said If force will not prevail wee 'l piece it with the Foxes Tail King of Jerusalem Almerick King of Jerusalem making a League with the Calyph of Egypt did by Oath bind himself to the performance but contrary to his promise warring against them was miserably wasted and as miserably ended his dayes The Egyptians punished Perjury by death Valdislaus King if Hungaria Valdislaus King of Hungaria concluded and confirmed a Peace by Solemn Oath with the great Turk Amurath but the King of Hungaria by the Popes perswasion breaks his Solemn Oath and wars against the Emperour of the Turks and proceeding to Battel the whole day was carried dubious on both sides But presently the great Turk Amurath takes out of his bosome the Articles agreed on and covenanted too by Oaths and holding up in his hand lifting up his eyes to Heaven uttered these words Oh Jesus Christ If thou art a God as these Christians say Revenge this wrong done to thy name and me and punish these Covenant-Breakers which words were hardly spoken but God shewed his powerful Judgements on the King of Hungaria and his whole Army For presently the King Valdislaus amidst his Enemies was slain and his whole Army routed few escaping Agesilaus General of the Spartan Army marching in Asia Minor made Truce with Tissaphernes Lieutenant to the King of Persia till he had sent to the King his Master to know his Pleasure but instead of sending to the King for ayd in advise and Counsel he contrary to his Oath sends for a Great Army to surprize the General of the Spartan Army But Gods Judgements followed at the Heels of this perjury for the Army was quite overthrown according to the prophesie of the Spartan General who said the Gods were angry and no doubt would be revenged on his perjury The Romans in antient times highly reverenced faith and Oaths in case of publick affairs between Prince and People or between King and King and to that purpose they had a Temple erected and dedicated where constantly they used to repair and there solemnly promise and swear to all the conditions of peace and Truces and so cursed those that went about to break them first and therfore for greater and more strict confirmation thereof they offered Sacrifices to the Image of Faith for the greater Testimony of the Intentions and love to keep their Oaths most solemnly made How will our King Charls the Ninth be ashamed by these poor Heathens The Psalmist sayes A man ought not to break covenant but stand to it though to his great hurt yet such a bold wickedness hath possessed several Popes that they undertake to discharge any that shall break their oaths with Hereticks as they say This audacious and impious practice of confronting Gods command calls for vengeance from Heaven That any man should be so boldly blasphemous as to say they will pardon this sin which God has denounced such fearful Judgements against There was in antient time a people in Italy called Aequi their Memory only now remaining These people made League with the Romans and give Oath to keep it but not long after they raised an Army and spoiled the Romans falling on them contrary to Covenant the Romans send three Ambassadours to complain but their Captain General slighted them and bid them
deliver their Ambassy to an Oak-tree standing by One of the three Ambassadours spake to the Oak-Tree in these words Thou hallowed Oak and what ever else in this place belongs to the Gods hear and bear witness of this Disloyal perjury and breach of Covenant and favour our just complaints that we may at last by the help of the Gods be revenged on this perjured people So they returned home and presently raised an Army set on this perjured people and by the just Judgements of God utterly destroy them off the face of the earth To omit many other Examples of this Nature take but this one more King of Lacedemonia The King of Lacedemonia and the Argives being at War Cleomenes the Lacedemonian King made Truce for seven days and the third night following fell on them and made a great slaughter and with this excuse thought to evade the dint of the shame and Gods justice for sayes he It is true I made Truce for seven days but I did not mention nights Yet God followed this perjured King with these Judgements The Wives of the slain Argives arm under the command of Tolesilla their Captainess enter the City and puts to the Sword and flight the power and forces of the perjured King Cleomenes afterwards he was banished into Egypt where he miserably died a desperate death being his own Executioner Thus we see what heavy Judgements God has made and does execute upon all such as are contemners and breakers of this holy Edict and Law of God The Lord is to be feared and obeyed for in all his Judgements none greater threatned nor heavyer and surer falls on than on bloody and perjured men A thing abhorred and hated by Heathens before ever they were so far enlightened as to know the Law of God was above the Law of Nature for though they had but the light of Nature yet they held it a sin unpardonable and no Punishment accounted enough as they could invent There were some that recorded these cruelties and treacherys of the Kings and instanced the Law of the twelve Tables Si patronus clienti fraudem facit sacer esto if the Sovereign cheat his Subjects let them be out of safety or Protection He that in antient time despised the keeping of Oaths was no more to be called a King The Right hand was called a Pledge of Faith The Throne is established by Justice and it is an Abomination for Kings to do wickedness The Throne is upheld by mercy saies Solomon But this King by his Treachery Perjury and Cruelty degraded himself of his peoples affections for he valued not the lives of many thousand so his bloody cruelty could be satisfyed Scipio accounted it an honourable thing to save one Citizen rather than to kill a thousand Enemies There was no power and authority so great as the Dictators at Rome it was such an Assembly which met together as had the power of War and Peace nay they had the command of life and death at their will and that without any Appeal and yet it was not lawful for them to execute a Citizen unless his cause was publickly and justly heard and he legally committed and condemned But indeed it is the manner of Murtherers to bereave of life without Law or cause of death Nay had this horrid Massaere been a bare down-right murther it had been the less but it was covered with fraud and deceit The King and Court must personate a Religious habit and pretence of a Religious vow making Gods holy Ordinance stoop to his deceitful and tteacherous intention The Duties of Kings and Powers of the World which is not inconsistent with prudent Policy and sound Christianity A King ought by his Christian demeanour to have a rich store-house and exchequer of Affection and allegiance in his peoples hearts and he who takes care therein to lay such provision of love as that it may be as a firm Rock as a strong foundation what is there then that he may not command which is in their power to perform then the arms of the peoples affections open and are spread to imbrace any command this is the way to have the key of their hearts and to open that treasury of respect which by the wise mannagement of his power received from them he hath ready laid up Loving Subjects are most uniting in a harmonious consent of obedience to all his Commands love to a Prince created by himself will make cowards valourous even to defend him from the shock of his Enemies assaults And it is seen with greatest lustre and to his best advantage in his Straights when he hath made all his Subjects on the least notice ready to be voluntiers in the greatest dangers and hottest attempts for the Honour of their own Prince But when Kings spend too much on the stock of his Peoples willing minds of Subjection and prodigally trade away that stock of Love treasured up in his people what does he but expose himself to all assaults of fury and cruelty without pitty as it has been the end of many Princes nay when love is abused and turned to hatred in what a tottering Throne does he sit But whatsoever the Theory of an absolute Monarchy be yet a Good King loves the practical part of Justice his Power being more safe in his Laws than his Will Though his power and his Command may claim a strong Authority to do as he pleases yet he will not make his Power arbitrary nor beyond the limit of equal justice to all Now for Oppression Tyranny Cruelty and perjury to be seated in the heart of a King and he in the heart of his Kingdome Oh! how it levells his peoples affections and stems the tide and current of their allegiance razes the very foundation of his own security and is the most compendious way to his own utter ruin It doth by a strange instinct raise tumults and vicissitudes that like a rapid Torrent of confusion falls upon his own head as the reward of his vicious merits What foundation can such a King have when it is builded on a Quagmire seated on the terrible aspect of the peoples hatred accrewing by his Treacherous Tyranny An ingenuous people can no more brook oppression than the River Danube can mix with the muddy streams of Sava But this King to establish his Throne of Cruelty and Tyranny Peaceable like betroaths his People and Himself in an indissoluble bond of Peace never to be broke on his part yet no sooner made before the view of heaven and in the sight and presence of God but he registers his falsehood cruelty and perjury in a suddain breach with the blood of his own Subjects taking the advantage of their punctual observance to disarm them and take their Towns which on the peace granted were delivered and so erects his bloody Engines of deceit upon the ruins of his own promise Now Christian Reader let us a little see the small probability that the Admiral should
March to the siege at Rochel Wherepon the Protestants assemble in many places settle the Countie of Montauban ordering that City to be their Principal seat and in that County the Vicount of Paulin being chosen Governor of Nismes it was made the principal seat in the County of Languedoc which lay under the Government of St. Romain These preparations and resolutions thus taken strikes an arrow in the Kings heart who now too late saw that all the blood he and his Council had shed proved not as he expected and now the horrour of so much blood fell upon his bloody and guilty conscience insomuch as he knew not which way to turn once he was resolved to fall on those that had perswaded him that the cutting off the Protestants would terminate his Troubles in a quiet calm and enjoyment of one Religion and that putting a period to the Protestant power would estate him in the throne of his full desires Another while he would stop his brother the King of Poland and not suffer his absence in such a pinch of occasions But God will not now let blood go long unavenged even on the prime instrument of such wicked cruelty thus straightened on all sides he is ready to be oppressed with anger and vexation stranger Princes openly reproach him for the irreparable injuries done to the poor innocent Protestants and his too loyal Subjects for a King which should be a Protector of his people to prove a Tyrant a cruel murtherer and Butcher of his own Subjects The King with anxity of mind falls into a desperate sickness at Vitry in Campagn as he was setting forward his brother towards Poland but he recovers again in the midst of these actings the Protestants of Languedoc fortifie themselvs Now the King to give some hopes to grant the Protestants their desires summons a Parliament to meet at Campagn the Protestants in several Provinces prepare their Deputies with instructions and had it given them in Commission to speak home against the Authors of the late unheard-of cruelties and murthers the Q. Mother and the rest are afraid of the Touch and so at first labour to pacifie the Protestant Commissioners with fair words but that will not do the Protestants must not play away their lives in an equal stake of fair words the late woful experience of their murthered friends frighted them from putting too much trust in these words whereupon not receiving content to their just and honest demands they withdraw to their several charges and endeavour their own security and safety In the mean time the Count Montgomery arrived with his fleet from England in a part of France called Le Payes de Constantine a part of the Province of Normandy who being safe landed had assistance from several Protestants and seized on several Towns as Danfront Carentane St. Lo and Valognes but the Protestants had better success in all parts than in this Province of Normandy The Kings Army under the command of the Field Marshall lay siege to St. Lo wherein was the Count Montgomery and all his ships lying under the command of the Town the Count secreatly escaped from the danger of so weak a place but Jaques Sieur de Martignon with Villers and St. Columb leave St. Lo besieged with a party under command of Fervagues and Malicorn and so they persue the Count with two Regiments of foot six hundred horse and four small field pieces and ere they were a ware begirts them close in a small Town called Danfront which though a weak Town yet the Castle was well seated insomuch that they resolved to stand and dy like Souldiers with Swords in their hands at a breach than be shamefully murthered or dy on a Scaffold At this siege by the valour of the Count and Friends the Catholicks lost St. Colomb and a great many Gentlemen Voluntiers and two hundred of their most valiant men but at last no longer able to continue they yield to Martignan with these tearms viz. to have their lives carry away their arms and yet it was so as they were to remain sometime in the power of Martignan and Vassey with security for the Counts life But was it ever read of in such a small History and in Wars of so short time that ever there was such a common breach of faith and promise when signed and sealed for a strict observance as a good Author says he that is a base so is constantly false in friendship The Count being in his Enemies custody yielded to too much cruelty on terms of mercy who I dare say had rather died a thousand deaths like a true Souldier then be so basely delt withal for in the night he was guarded away Prisoner to Paris and there basely executed in the sight of the King and Q. Mother who received much joy at his death but the just God saw all these treacheries and justly rewarded some according to their bloody deserts And now to conclude this sad and dolefull reign of a bloody Tyrant let us see after his blood reign and flatigious life a sad and suitable death a spectacle of Gods anger and an embleme of his bloody dealing who falling sick in the prime of his years being forced to his Bed he was sore tormented and handled with a great effusion of blood which issued out of all parts of his body and that which very much astonished many he did once rowl himself in hit own blood vomiting blood through all the Conduits of his body that it may be said as of Tiberius Caesar Lutum Sanguine Maceratum a lump of clay soaked in blood So this King by the just judgement of God expired his last the 24. year of his age and in the year of our Lord God 1574. Julius Caesar sacrificing to the Gods found a Beast without a heart which was looked upon as very ominous and surely may we not infer from this Kings bloody reign that he Had no heart a bloody Heart or A Heart and a Heart Thus this King having lived in other mens blood dyed in his own which as it was the issue of his own deserts so it was an immediate hand of Gods justice And it cannot but be taken notice of that the rest of the chief Agents of this bloody Tragedy were strangly and justly cut off The Duke of Anjou being then King of Poland succeeds this King Charls by being called from Poland to the Crown of France Yet God follows him for by the means of a young Jacobine Monck named Fryer Jaques Clement the said King was stabbed in the same Chamber where he held Council for the acting the late Tragedies The just hand of God persued the Duke of Guise who was murthered in the Kings own Chamber five and fourty waiting with Rapiers and Poinyards to do it The Queen Mother with grief broke her heart and died the first of January after To conclude it hath been observed by a good Author that since the year of God 1560. that of a thousand murtherers which remained unpunished by men there was not ten escaped the Divine hand of God but came to deserved and wretched ends suitable to their bloody and butcherly lives Laus Deo FINIS