[1530] He had received his recall and the duke of Medina-Coeli had been sent to succeed him, and at this hour was on the ground urging a policy of moderation (Raumer, I, 202). Yet Alva refused to give up (Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 437).
[1531] The march of the Spanish army that intercepted Genlis was so accurate as to give rise to the belief that Alva had prior information. It is uncertain. Mendoza, who was with the Spanish army (Commentaires, Book VI, chap. vii) seems to confirm the suspicion. His account (chaps. vii-xiii) is very vivid. Only thirty of Genlis’ men escaped; the rest were either killed or drowned. On the warnings given to Genlis, see a relation in Archives curieuses, VII. There is an unpublished account of Genlis’ defeat in F. Fr., 18,587, fol. 541. According to La Huguerye, 125, he was strangled in prison.
[1532] It did so on September 19. See a letter of William of Orange to his brother John, September 24, 1572, in Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 511. La Noue prophesied the fall of the city when he saw the heights of Jemappes occupied by the troops of Spain (Hauser, La Noue, 33).
[1533] As late as August 11, 1572, the Prince of Orange was still looking for the coming of the admiral Coligny into the Low Countries (see a letter of his to his brother John, of this date in Archives de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, III, 490).
[1534] Albornoz to secretary of state Cayas, from Brussels, July 19, 1572 (see Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 269). A note of M. Gachard adds: “Cette lettre, datée de St. Leger, le 27 avril 1572, était écrite par Charles IX au comte Louis de Nassau. Il y disait qu’il était déterminé, autant que les occasions et la disposition de ses affaires le permettraient à employer les forces que Dieu avait mises en sa main à tirer les Pays-Bas de l’oppression sous laquelle ils gémissaient. Une traduction espagnole de cette lettre existe aux Archives de Simancas, papeles de Estado, liasse 551.” Charles IX. repudiated its authenticity (see a letter to Mondoucet, French agent in Flanders, dated August 12, 1572, in Bulletin de la Commission d’hist. de Belgique, séries II, IV, 342). The admiral Coligny, without knowing of the incriminating evidence in Alva’s hands after the failure before Mons, urged Charles IX to declare war upon Spain at once as the shortest and safest way out of the difficulty (Brantôme, Vie des grandes capitaines françois—M’l’admiral de Châtillon).
[1535] As late as August 21, France had the hardihood to protest her innocence of any enterprise in Flanders (Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, II, 271, Philip to Alva, August 2, 1572; ibid., II, 273, Alva to Philip, August 21, 1572).
[1536] There is in existence the record of an extremely curious conversation of the admiral Coligny upon this subject with Henry Middelmore, one of the English agents in France, in which the latter frankly said: “Of all other thinges we colde least lyke that France shulde commaunde Flawnders, or bryng it under theyr obedience, for therein we dyd see so apparawntlye the greatnes of our dainger, and therefore in no wyse colde suffer it.”—Ellis, Original Letters, 2d series, III, 6. I find the same thought expressed in a letter of Thomas Parker to one Hogyns, written from Bruges, June 17, 1572. See Appendix XXIX.
[1537] On this last phase see Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, IV, Introd., xlix ff., and Froude, Hist. of England, X, 312.
[1538] For a particular account see Whitehead, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, 257-64. Two of Lord Burghley’s correspondents give accounts (C. S. P. For., Nos. 537, 538, August 22, 1572). See also an interesting extract from the registers of the Bureau of the Ville of Paris in Archives curieuses, VII, 211.
[1539] For the order of Marcel, provost of the merchants, immediately before the massacre, see Arch. cur., VII, 212. On the council of August 24, see Cavalli, 85. Charles IX at first denied any responsibility and blamed the Guises. When this proved a dangerous explanation, he asserted the massacre was made to foil a similar plot on the part of the Huguenots.