Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/156

136 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.58. about the ankles, and the corpse was dragged out into the street amidst the howling crowd. Teligny, who was in the adjoining house, had sprung out of bed at the first disturbance, ran down into the court, and climbed by a ladder to the roof. From behind a parapet he saw his father-in-law murdered, and, scrambling on the tiles, concealed himself in a garret ; but he was soon tracked, torn from his hiding-place, and thrown upon the stones with a dagger in his side. 1 Rochefoucault and the rest of the Admiral's friends who lodged in the neighbour- hood were disposed of in the same way, and so complete was the surprise that there was not the most faint at- tempt at resistance. Montpensier had been no less successful in the Louvre. The staircases were all beset. The retinues of the King of Navarre and the Prince had been lodged in the palace at Charles's particular desire. Their names were called over, and as they descended unarmed into the quadrangle they were hewn in pieces. There, in heaps, they fell below the Royal window under the eyes of the miserable King, who was forced forward be- tween his mother and his brother that he might be seen as the accomplice of the massacre. Most of the victims were killed upon the spot. Some fled wounded up the stairs, and were slaughtered in the presence of the Princesses. One gentleman rushed bleeding into the apartment of the newly-married Margaret, clung to her dress, and was hardly saved by her intercession. 1 News from Paris, September, 1572 : MSS. France.