pear that they were killed by the Catholics in
self-defence. Reports were circulated at once with that object. A letter
written on the 23rd states that, after the Admiral was wounded on the
day before, the Huguenots assembled at the gate of the Louvre, to avenge
him on the Guises as they came out.[61] And the first explanation sent
forth by the Government on the 24th was to the effect that the old feud
between the Houses of Guise and of Chatillon had broken out with a fury
which it was impossible to quell. This fable lasted only for a single
day. On the 25th Charles writes that he has begun to discover traces of
a Huguenot conspiracy;[62] and on the following day this was publicly
substituted for the original story. Neither the vendetta of the Guises
nor the conspiracy at Paris could be made to explain the massacre in the
provinces. It required to be so managed that the King could disown it;
Salviati describes the plan of operations. It was intended that the
Huguenots should be slaughtered successively by a series of spontaneous
outbreaks in different parts of the country. While Rochelle held out, it
was dangerous to proceed with a more sweeping method.[63] Accordingly,
no written instructions from the King are in existence; and the
governors were expressly informed that they were to expect none.[64]
Messengers went into the provinces with letters requiring that the
verbal orders which they brought should be obeyed.[65] Many governors
refused to act upon directions so vague and so hard to verify. Burgundy
was preserved in this way. Two gentlemen arrived with letters of
recommendation from the King, and declared his commands. They were
asked to put them on paper; but they refused to give in writing what
they had received by word of mouth. Mandelot, the Governor of Lyons, the
most ignoble of the instruments in this foul deed, complained that the
intimation of the royal wishes sent to him was obscure and
insufficient.[66] He did not do his work thoroughly, and incurred the
displeasure of the King. The orders were complicated as well as obscure.
The public authorities were required to collect the Huguenots in some
prison or other safe place, where they could be got at by hired bands of
volunteer assassins. To screen the King it was desirable that his
officers should not superintend the work themselves. Mandelot, having
locked the gates of Lyons, and shut up the Huguenots together, took
himself out of the way while they were b