MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 119
commands. They were asked to put them on paper; but they refused to give in writing what they had received by \vord of mouth. Mandelot, the Governor of Lyons, the most ignoble of the instruments in this foul deed, com- plained that the intimation of the royal wishes sent to him was obscure and insufficient. 1 He did not do his \vork thoroughly, and incurred the displeasure of the King. The orders were complicated as well as obscure. The public authorities were required to collect the Hugue- nots in some prison or other safe place, \vhere 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 \vork themselves. Mandelot, having locked the gates of Lyons, and shut up the Huguenots together, took himself out of the way while they were being butchered. Carouge, at Rouen, received a com- mission to visit the other towns in his province. The magistrates implored him to remain, as nobody, in his absence, could restrain the people. When the King had twice repeated his commands, Carouge obeyed; and five hundred Huguenots perished. 2 It was thought unsafe even for the King's brother to give distinct orders under his own hand. He wrote to his lieutenant in Anjou that he had commissioned Puygaillard to communicate with him on a matter which concerned the King's service and his own, and desired that his orders should be received as if they came directly from himsel( They were, that every Huguenot in Angers, Saumur, and the adjoining country should be put to death without delay and without exception. s The Duke of Montpensier himself sent the same order to Brittany; but it \vas indignantly rejected by the municipality of N antes. When reports came in of the manner in which the
1 Je n'en ay aucune conlpe, n'ayant sceu queUe estoit la volunté que par umbre, encores bien tard et à demy (Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept, 17. p. 73)' 2 Floquet, Histoire du Parlement de ...Vormandie, iii. 121. S Anjou to Montsoreau, Aug. 26; 1'Iourin, p, 107; Falloux, Vie de Pie V., i. 35 8 ; Port, Archives de la l fairie d'Angers, pp, 41, 4 2 .
