made them more
dangerous than before. A better laid and more comprehensive plan was
therefore carried out on the eve of St. Bartholomew's day. [Sidenote:
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 24, to October 3] Early in the
evening of August 23, Henry of Guise, a son of Duke Francis, and
Coligny's bitterest personal enemy, went with armed men to the house of
the admiral and murdered him. From thence they proceeded to the houses
of other prominent Huguenots to slay them in the same manner. News of
the man-hunt spread through the city with instant rapidity, the mob
rose and massacred all the Huguenots they could find as well as a
number of foreigners, principally Germans and Flemings. De Thou says
that two thousand were slain in Paris before noon of August 24. A
general pillage followed.

The king hesitated to assume responsibility for so serious a tumult.
His letters of August 24 to various governors of provinces and to
ambassadors spoke only of a fray between Guise and Coligny, and stated
that he wished to preserve order. But with these very {218} letters he
sent messengers to all quarters with verbal orders to kill all the
leading Protestants. On August 27 he again wrote of it as "a great and
lamentable sedition" originating in the desire of Guise to revenge his
father on Coligny. The king said that the fury of the populace was
such that he was unable to bring the remedy he wished, and he again
issued directions for the preservation of order. But at the same time
he declared that the Guises had acted at his command to punish those
who had conspired against him and against the old religion. In fact,
he gave out a rapid series of contradictory accounts and orders, and in
the meantime, from August 25 to October 3 terrible series of massacres
took place in almost all the provinces. [Sidenote: Other massacres]
Two hundred Huguenots perished at Meaux, from 500 to 1000 at Orleans, a
much larger number at Lyons. It is difficult to estimate the total
number of victims. Sully, who narrowly escaped, says that 70,000 were
slain. Hotman, another contemporary, says 50,000. Knowing how much
figures are apt to be exaggerated even by judicious men, we must assume
that this number is too large. On the other hand the lowest estimate
given by modern Catholic investigators, 5000, is certainly too small.
Probably between 10,000 and 20,000 is correct. Those who fell were the
flower of the party.

Whatever may have been the