d them food and
safety on condition that they should surrender and give up their arms
and armor. He separated them into lots of ten, each guarded by twenty
Spaniards. When each lot had been led out of sight of the rest he
explained that on account of their great numbers and the fewness of his
own followers he should be compelled to tie their hands before taking
them into camp, for fear they might capture the camp. At the end of the
day, when all had reached a certain line which Menendez marked out with
his cane in the sand, he gave the word to his murderers to butcher
them."

Coligny bowed his noble gray head.

"And he offered them life if they would renounce their religion,
whereupon Ribault repeating in French the psalm, 'Lord, remember thou
me,' they died without other supplication to God or man. On this account
did Menendez write above the heads of those whom he hanged, 'I do this
not as to Frenchmen but as to Lutherans.' And no demand for redress has
as yet been made?"

"One," said the Admiral coolly. "A demand was made by Philip of Spain.
He has required his brother of France to punish one Gaspe Coligny,
sometimes known as Admiral, for sending out a Huguenot colony to settle
in Florida."

The Gascon sprang to his feet muttering something between his teeth. "I
crave your pardon, my lord," he added with a courteous bow. "I am but a
plain rough soldier unused to the ways of courts, but it seems to me
that things being as they are, my duty is quite simple." He bowed
himself out and left Coligny wondering.

During the following months it was noted that in choosing the men for
his coming expedition Gourgues appeared to be unusually select. He sold
his inheritance, borrowed some money of his brother, and fitted out
three small ships carrying both sails and oars. He enlisted, one by one,
about a hundred arquebusiers and eighty sailors who could fight either
by land or sea if necessary. He secured a commission from the King to
go slave-raiding in Benin, on the coast of Africa. On August 22, 1567,
he set sail from the mouth of the Charente.

"I should like to know," said one of the trumpeters, Lucas Moreau,
"whether we are really going slave-catching, or not."

"Why do you think we are not?" asked the pilot, to whom he spoke.

"Because I have seen nothing on board that looks like it. Moreover, he
was very particular to ask me if I had been in the Spanish Indies, and
when he heard that I had been in Florida he took