Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/165

I572-] THE MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLOMEW. 145 Huguenots off their guard, and thus destroy them. Armed with the letter which Charles wrote the day of the massacre, and in which he laid the blame upon Guise, La Mothe attempted to check the torrent of in- vective ; l but he was himself obliged after the next post to change his language, and his double story was taken as a fresh evidence of treachery. The atrocities in the French provinces furnished fuel to the indignation. English witnesses of the scenes at Rouen shut La Mothe's mouth and made explanation impossible. The universal and not unnatural opinion was that, finding themselves baffled in the field, the Papal, French, and Spanish Courts had laid a plot for the general murder of Protestants all over Europe, that the English and Scotch Catholics were secret parties to it, and that the festival of the Gallic nuptials was to be celebrated everywhere as the opportunity offered. The accounts from Rome confirmed the most sinister interpretation. The cry rose in the pulpits of blood for blood. Every Papist was regarded as a murderer in disguise ; and the symptoms were so alarming of an intention to give them 'Paris justice,' that Burghley had to hurry up to London to keep his friends in order. The bishops sent a representation to the Queen that, for the quiet of the realm, such Catholic priests and gentlemen as were in prison for having refused the oath of allegiance should be immediately put to death. 2 1 La Mothe Fenelon au Roy, September 2 : Depeches, vol. v, 2 Antonio de Foga^a to Kuy VOL. x. 10 Gomez, September 8: MSS. Si-