[724] Agrippa d'Aubigné, i. 307. "Ne se trouva oncques gens plus fidelles au camp catholicque que lesditz estrangers, et singulièrement les Suisses, lesquelz ne pardonnèrent à ung seul de leur nation germanique de ceux qui tombèrent en leurs mains." Mém. de Claude Haton, ii. 582.
[725] "Che non avesse il comandamanto di lui osservato d'ammazzar subito qualunque heretico gli fosse venuto alle mani." Catena, Vita di Pio V., apud White, Mass. of St. Bartholomew, 305, and De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvi.) 228. With singular inconsistency—so impossible is it generally to carry out these horrible theories of extermination—the Roman pontiff himself afterward liberated D'Acier without exacting any ransom. De Thou, ubi supra. "Si Santafiore lui avoit obéï," says an annotator, "Jacques de Crussol (D'Acier) ne se seroit pas converti, et n'auroit pas laissé une si illustre poterité."
[726] On the battle of Moncontour, consult J. de Serres, iii. 357-362; De Thou, iv. 224-228; Castelnau, liv. vii., c. 9; Agrippa d'Aubigné, liv. v., c. 17; a Roman Catholic relation in Groen van Prinsterer, Archives de la Maison d'Orange Nassau, iii. 324-326.
[727] "Nihil est enim ea pietate misericordiaque crudelius, quæ in impios et ultima supplicia meritos confertur." Pius V. to Charles IX., Oct. 20, 1569. Pii V. Epistolæ (Antwerp, 1640), 242. The French victories of Jarnac and Moncontour were celebrated by a medal struck at Rome, with the legend, "Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo, dispersit superbos," and a representation of Pius kneeling and invoking the aid of heaven against the heretics. In the distance is seen a combat, and above it appears the Divine Being directing the issue. Figured in "Le Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique, par Paul Delaroche" (Médailles des Papes, plate 15, No. 5), Paris, 1839.
[728] La Mothe Fénélon, vii. 65, etc., from Simancas MSS. So Claude Haton, who is rarely behindhand in such matters, makes the Protestants lose fifteen thousand or sixteen thousand men. Mémoires, ii. 582. Admiral Coligny was for a time believed by the court to be dead or mortally wounded, "mais ne fut rien." Ibid., ubi supra.
[729] If we may credit the curate Claude, Catharine de' Medici alone was vexed at the completeness of the rout and the number of Huguenots slain, "inasmuch as she gave them as much support as possible, and encouraged them in rebellion, that the civil wars might continue, in which she took pleasure because of the management of affairs they threw into her hands"—"pour le maniment des affaires qu'elle entreprenoit et manioit." Mémoires, ii. 583.
[730] Journal d'un curé ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), 110.
[731] Jehan de la Fosse, 112. The date is stated as "about Oct. 17th."
[732] Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, i. 241.
[733] De Thou, iv. 230; Agrippa d'Aubigné, i. 310. The murderer's name is variously written Maurevel, Moureveil, Montrevel, etc.