of the town,
the condemned lords, the last of the conspirators who were left alive,
were led out. These gentlemen, some of whom had been put to the torture,
were grouped at the foot of the scaffold and surrounded by monks, who
endeavored to make them abjure the doctrines of Calvin. But not a single
man listened to the words of the priests who had been appointed for
this duty by the Cardinal of Lorraine; among whom the gentlemen no doubt
feared to find spies of the Guises. In order to avoid the importunity of
these antagonists they chanted a psalm, put into French verse by Clement
Marot. Calvin, as we all know, had ordained that prayers to God should
be in the language of each country, as much from a principle of common
sense as in opposition to the Roman worship. To those in the crowd who
pitied these unfortunate gentlemen it was a moving incident to hear them
chant the following verse at the very moment when the king and court
arrived and took their places:--

"God be merciful unto us,
And bless us!
And show us the light of his countenance,
And be merciful unto us."

The eyes of all the Reformers turned to their leader, the Prince de
Conde, who was placed intentionally between Queen Mary and the young Duc
d'Orleans. Catherine de' Medici was beside the king, and the rest of the
court were on her left. The papal nuncio stood behind Queen Mary; the
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, the Duc de Guise, was on horseback
below the balcony, with two of the marshals of France and his staff
captains. When the Prince de Conde appeared all the condemned noblemen
who knew him bowed to him, and the brave hunchback returned their
salutation.

"It would be hard," he remarked to the Duc d'Orleans, "not to be civil
to those about to die."

The two other balconies were filled by invited guests, courtiers, and
persons on duty about the court. In short, the whole company of the
chateau de Blois had come to Amboise to assist at this festival of
death, precisely as it passed, a little later, from the pleasures of
a court to the perils of war, with an easy facility, which will always
seem to foreigners one of the main supports of their policy toward
France.

The poor syndic of the furriers of Paris was filled with the keenest joy
at not seeing his son among the fifty-seven gentlemen who were condemned
to die.

At a sign from the Duc de Guise, the clerk seated on the scaffold cried
in a loud voice:--

"Jean-Louis-Alberi