"Vers l'Éternel, des oppressés le père,
Je m'en iray, luy monstrant l'impropère
Que l'on me fait; et luy feray prière," etc.
[780] "Coppie de lettres envoyées à la Royne Mère par un sien serviteur après la mort du feu Roy Henri deuxième." Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses, iii. 349, etc. The substance of Villemadon's letter, which is dated August 26th, 1559, is given by La Planche, 211, 212, and, after him, by Hist. ecclés., i. 141, 142.
[781] La Planche, 219; Hist. ecclés., i. 143; cf. Forbes, State Papers, i. 226.
[782] La Planche, 220; Hist. ecclés., ubi supra. It is not at all improbable that those who endeavored to influence Catharine showed too little discretion in their zeal, and needlessly provoked her displeasure by reference to the judgment of God upon her husband. So, at least, thought the judicious Frenchman Languet, who added, with some bitterness, that whoever urged upon them moderation was rewarded for his pains by being called a traitor to the faith. Epist. secretæ, ii. 41.
[783] Or, Trouillard, according to Castelnau, ubi supra.
[784] La Planche, 223-225; Castelnau, liv. i., c. 4; De Thou, ii. 691.
[785] La Planche and De Thou, ubi supra.
[786] Epistolæ secretæ, ii. 30.
[787] See ante, c. viii., p. 275. The authority of the Mémoires de Tavannes (ii. 258)—"Les chambres ardentes sont érigées pour persecuter les Huguenots, et ce d'autant plus que les princes du sang et les frères de Coligny favorisoient la religion nouvelle"—cannot weigh against the positive statement of the preamble of Henry II.'s edict of Paris, Nov. 19, 1549, ante, c. viii., p. 275. Yet Drion, Hist. chron. de l'église prot. de France, i. 63, places the original institution here.
[788] Drion, i. 64; Hist. ecclés., i. 151. On the other hand, Protestant sympathizers sometimes interfered with the course of law in the interest of their brethren in the faith. "Since our arrivall to this towne," wrote Killigrew and Jones from Blois, Nov. 14, 1559, "there were xvii persones taken for the worde's sake, and committed to the sergeaunts to be conveyed to Orleauns, and other places therabouts, to be prosecuted. Notwithstanding, it hathe so happened, as the prisoners in the way betwene this towne and Orleans were rescued, and taken from the sergeaunts who had charge of them, by sixty men on horsebacke, and so were conveyed away." Forbes, State Papers, i. 261. At Rouen, Jan. 29, 1560, a bookbinder was snatched from between two friars, as he was being led in a cart to be burned alive, a cloak thrown over him, and he conveyed out of the hands of his enemies. Unfortunately, the gates having been closed, he was recaptured the same night, and the cruel sentence was executed the next day, with a guard of 300 men-at-arms, for fear of the people. Memorandum of Feb. 8th, State Paper Office.