ifici illumque
certum reddite me totum hoc quod circa id matrimonium feci et facturus
sum, nulla alia de causa facere, quam ulciscendi inimicos Dei et hujus
regni, et puniendi tam infidos rebelles, ut eventus ipse docebit, nec
aliud vobis amplius significare possum. Quo non obstante semper
Cardinalis eas subtexuit difficultates quas potuit, objiciens regi
possetne contrahi matrimonium a fidele cum infidele, sitve dispensatio
necessaria; quod si est nunquam Pontificem inductum iri ut illam
concedat. Re ipsa ita in suspenso relicta discedendum esse putavit, cum
jam rescivisset qua de causa naves parabantur, qui apparatus contra
Rocellam tendebant."

The opinion that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was a sudden and
unpremeditated act cannot be maintained; but it does not follow that the
only alternative is to believe that it was the aim of every measure of
the Government for two years before. Catherine had long contemplated it
as her last expedient in extremity; but she had decided that she could
not resort to it while her son was virtually a minor.[52] She suggested
the idea to him in 1570. In that year he gave orders that the Huguenots
should be slaughtered at Bourges. The letter is preserved in which La
Chastre spurned the command: "If the people of Bourges learn that your
Majesty takes pleasure in such tragedies, they will repeat them often.
If these men must die, let them first be tried; but do not reward my
services and sully my reputation by such a stain."[53]

In the autumn of 1571 Coligny came to Blois. Walsingham suspected, and
was afterwards convinced that the intention to kill him already existed.
The Pope was much displeased by his presence at Court; but he received
assurances from the ambassador which satisfied him. It was said at the
time that he at first believed that Coligny was to be murdered, but that
he soon found that there was no such praiseworthy design.[54]

In December the King knew that, when the moment came, the burghers of
Paris would not fail him. Marcel, the Prevot des Marchands, told him
that the wealth was driven out of the country by the Huguenots: "The
Catholics will bear it no longer.... Let your Majesty look to it. Your
crown is at stake, Paris alone can save it."[55] By the month of
February 1572 the plan had assumed a practical shape. The political idea
before the mind of Charles was the same by which Richelieu afterwards
made France the first Power in the world; to repress the Prote