he said, "that I have lived long
enough to behold our victory; and now I care not for death. Go back, I
beseech you, and give me a last proof of friendship, by seeing that not
one man of the garrison escapes alive."[151] When Alva had defeated and
captured Genlis, and expected to make many more Huguenot prisoners in
the garrison of Mons, Charles IX. wrote to Mondoucet "that it would be
for the service of God, and of the King of Spain, that they should die.
If the Duke of Alva answers that this is a tacit request to have all the
prisoners cut to pieces, you will tell him that that is what he must do,
and that he will injure both himself and all Christendom if he fails to
do it."[152] This request also reached Alva through Spain. Philip wrote
on the margin of the despatch that, if he had not yet put them out of
the world, he must do so immediately, as there could be no reason for
delay.[153] The same thought occurred to others. On the 22nd of July
Salviati writes that it would be a serious blow to the faction if Alva
would kill his prisoners; and Granvelle wrote that, as they were all
Huguenots, it would be well to throw them all into the river.[154]

Where these sentiments prevailed, Gregory XIII. was not alone in
deploring that the work had been but half done. After the first
explosion of gratified surprise men perceived that the thing was a
failure, and began to call for more. The clergy of Rouen Cathedral
instituted a procession of thanksgiving, and prayed that the King might
continue what he had so virtuously begun, until all France should
profess one faith.[155] There are signs that Charles was tempted at one
moment, during the month of October, to follow up the blow.[156] But he
died without pursuing the design; and the hopes were turned to his
successor. When Henry III. passed through Italy on his way to assume the
crown, there were some who hoped that the Pope would induce him to set
resolutely about the extinction of the Huguenots. A petition was
addressed to Gregory for this purpose, in which the writer says that
hitherto the French court has erred on the side of mercy, but that the
new king might make good the error if rejecting that pernicious maxim
that noble blood spilt weakens a kingdom, he would appoint an execution
which would be cruel only in appearance, but in reality glorious and
holy, and destroy the heretics totally, sparing neither life nor
property.[157] Similar exhortations were addressed from Ro