me to hear him. The prelate then went himself to the
Protestant gathering, and sat through the "singing of the commandments"
and a prayer. But when he attempted to interrupt the services and asserted
his episcopal authority, the minister firmly repelled the usurpation,
taking his stand on the king's edict. Then, waxing warm in the discussion,
the dauntless Huguenot exposed the hypocrisy of the pretended shepherd,
who, not entering the fold by canonical election, but intruding himself
into it without consulting his charge, was more anxious to secure his own
ease than to lead his sheep into green pastures. The bishop soon retired
from a field where he had found more than his match in argument: but the
common people, who had come to witness his triumph over the Huguenot
preacher, remained after his unexpected discomfiture, and the unequal
contest resulted in fresh accessions to the ranks of the Protestants.
Equally unsuccessful was the Bishop of Chalons in the attempt to induce
the king to issue a commission to the Duke of Guise against the
unoffending inhabitants, and Vassy was spared the fate of Merindol and
Cabrieres. At Christmas nine hundred communicants, after profession of
their faith, partook of the Lord's Supper according to the reformed rites;
and in January, 1562, after repeated solicitations, the church obtained
the long-desired boon of a pastor, in the person of the able and pious
Leonard Morel. Thus far the history of Vassy differed little from that of
hundreds of other towns in that age of wonderful awakening and growth, and
would have attracted little attention had not its proximity to the
Lorraine princes secured for it a tragic notoriety.[36]

[Sidenote: Approach of the Duke of Guise.]

On the twenty-eighth of February, Guise, with two hundred armed retainers,
left Joinville. That night he slept at Dommartin-le-Franc. On Sunday
morning, the first of March, he continued his journey. Whether by accident
or from design, it is difficult to say, he drew near to Vassy about the
time when the Huguenots were assembling for worship, and his ears caught
the sound of their bell while he was still a quarter of a league distant.
The ardor of Guise's followers was already at fever-heat. They had seen a
poor artisan apprehended in a town that lay on their track, and summarily
hung by their leader's order, for the simple offence of having had his
child baptized after the reformed rites. When Guise heard the bell of the
V