was actuated, produce only more general and lasting evils."

In the coronation entertainments the situation of the state was enigmatically shadowed forth under various forms. By the character of Jupiter the king was pourtrayed; Catherine, under that of Juno; while the huguenots were represented by Tryphon and the giants. Even the tragedy of St. Bartholomew was darkly alluded to by mottoes and devices. The attention of the queen-mother was wholly occupied in spreading toils to ensnare the calvinists, and allure them to their fate. The young king received from her the lessons of a profound dissimulation: under her contagious touch, his virtues became corrupted, his great qualities perverted, and his good dispositions changed into crimes; his penetration degenerated into subtlety, and his prudence into treachery; his vivacity became fury, and his courage ferocity; while a thirst of blood and vengeance irritated his temper and enflamed his heart.

Every artifice was put in practice that might lull into securitity the destined victims, and give them confidence in the observance of the treaty. Coligny, the admiral, and successor to the prince of Condé in the command of the huguenot forces, was more particularly loaded with favours and

caresses; the king embraced him, hung on his neck, and addressed him by the endearing name of father; he was re-admitted to his seat in the council, and his estates restored to him, to which a royal donation was added: so far was this duplicity carried, as to excite the alarm of the catholic leaders.

The admiral, a dupe to Italian cunning, prevailed on the queen of Navarre to pay a visit to the king and his mother, by whom she was received with an excess of adulation. The negociation for the marriage of her son with the princess being concluded, the nuptials waited only to receive a dispensation from Rome. It is related by de Thou, that Charles, after the interview with the queen, demanded of his mother whether he had not played his part well? You have begun well, undoubtedly,' replied Catherine, 'but, unless you go on, of what avail will this be?'-' I will take them all in a net,' rejoined he, swearing as was his custom, and deliver them over to you.'

Pius V. still refusing his consent to the union of the princess with a huguenot, Charles implored the legate to remove the objections of the holy father, adding with warmth, while he affectionately pressed his hand, Oh that it was but per

mitted me to explain myself farther!'-By Gregory XIII. who succeeded to Pius, the dispensation was at length granted, when a day was appointed for the celebration of the nuptials.

The queen of Navarre, who, with her son and the young prince of Condé, had arrived in Paris for the occasion, was, in the midst of the preparations for the approaching ceremony, seized with a fever, which, after five days' illness, terminated in death. This event, at a moment so critical, roused the jealousy of her party, and drew on Catherine the most injurious suspicions. Coligni, dreading treachery, yet irresolute, had retired to his castle at Chatillon, still delaying his appearance at court, whither new artifices were employed to allure him. Subdued, at length, he came to Paris, and fell into the snare which was laid for him: a train of huguenot nobility accompanied him, followed by the young king of Navarre. Every testimony of respectful friendship was lavished on the admiral and the calvinist nobles, while nothing was omitted that could tend to remove their fears.

The inhabitants of Rochelle, still distrustful, implored Coligni, by repeated messages, to doubt the carresses of a monarch implacable as violent, and the blandishments of their mortal foe, a faithless Italian woman. To these cautions the admiral magnanimously replied, that, though aware of his peril, he would rather suffer himself to be dragged through the streets of Paris, than renew the horrors of a fourth civil war, and replunge his unhappy country in blood.' The maréchal de Montmorency, less heroic, or more clear sighted, obtained permission, under pretence of illness, to retire to his castle, and thus saved himself and his family.

The nuptials of the princess Margaret with Henry of Navarre were soon after solemnised in the church of Notre Dame. The entertainments, given by the court on the occasion, surpassing in splendor all that had preceded them, continued during three days. In these scenes of festivity, over which the queen-mother presided, the projected massacre was determined, its circumstances arranged, and its execution fixed. The purpose of the king and the jesuits was the exclusive destruction of the huguenots; but Catherine, whose heart ambition had seared, inaccessible to tenderness, to pity, or to compunction, superior to bigotry, and governed by the thirst of power, had formed a project more extensive, in which the Guises and Montmorencies were with the calvinists comprehended in one common ruin.

The prelude of the tragedy was to be the

assassination of the admiral, of which a man named Mourevel, already infamous by the murder of a huguenot leader, was appointed the instrument. Posted for the purpose, in a place where Coligny was accustomed to pass, the assassin deliberately waited his arrival. The admiral, walking slowly, engaged in the perusal of some papers, received the balls from a harquebusse, levelled at him from a window; when turning calmly, without betraying any emotion, he pointed to the place whence the shot came- Le coup vient de là, said he, holding out his finger. The assassin had escaped, and Coligni was, by his attendants, conveyed to his house.

The king received intelligence of what had passed while playing at tennis in the court of the Louvre. He affected on the news the most furious indignation; he threw down the racket, denounced vengeance on the assassin, and played over every extravagance that might tend to give an appearance of reality to the barbarous farce he was acting. The same day, accompanied by the queen-mother, he visited the wounded admiral, repeated his hypocritical lamentations, and exhausted every conciliating art.

Having passed an hour with Coligni in private