the _Histoire de la Ville de Paris_. On the morrow of the attempt on
Coligny's life, the queen-mother invited Charles and his brother of
Anjou to walk, after dinner, in the garden of her new palace in the
Tuileries:[116] they were joined by the chief Catholic leaders, and a
grand council was held. The queen dwelt on the perilous situation of
the monarchy and the Catholic cause, and urged that now was the time
to act: Coligny lay wounded; Navarre and Conde were in their power at
the Louvre; for ten Huguenots in Paris the Catholics could oppose a
thousand armed men; rid France of the Huguenot chiefs and a formidable
evil were averted. Her course was approved, but the leaders shrank
from including the two princes of Navarre and Conde: they were to be
given their choice--recantation or death. By order of the king 12,000
arquebusiers were placed along the river and the streets, and arms
were carried into the Louvre. The admiral's friends, alarmed at the
sinister preparations, protested to Charles but were reassured and
told to take Cosseins and fifty arquebusiers to guard his house. The
provost of Paris was then summoned by the Duke of Guise and ordered to
arm and organise the citizens and proceed to the Hotel de Ville at
midnight. The king, Guise said, would not lose so fair an opportunity
of exterminating the Huguenots. The Catholic citizens were to tie a
piece of white linen on their left arm and place a white cross in
their caps that they might be recognised by their friends. At midnight
the windows of their houses were to be illuminated by torches, and at
the first sound of the great bell at the Palais de Justice the bloody
work was to begin. Meanwhile Catherine, doubtful of Charles, repaired
to his chamber with Anjou and her councillors to fix his wavering
purpose; she heaped bitter reproaches upon him, worked on his fears
with stories of a vast Huguenot conspiracy and hinted that cowardice
prevented him from seizing the fairest opportunity that God had ever
offered, to free himself from his enemies. She repeated an Italian
prelate's vicious epigram: "_Che pieta lor ser crudel, che crudelta
lor ser pietosa_,"[117] and concluded by threatening to leave the
court with the Duke of Anjou rather than witness the destruction of
the Catholic cause. Charles, who had listened sullenly, and, if we may
believe Anjou, for a long while angrily refused to sacrifice Coligny,
was at length stung by the taunt of cowardice and broke int