Guise, who would not allow this, publicly declared that he had but obeyed the orders of the King and the Queen Mother. The Duke and his adherents brought such pressure to bear on the King that he was forced to declare before an assembly of his ministers that he, and he only, was responsible for what had taken place. He was nervous and exhausted; in turn humble and truculent, belligerent and repentant. He stooped more than usual and his breathlessness had increased. He seemed perpetually to be tottering on the brink of complete insanity.

Catherine on the other hand looked, so many remarked, ten years younger. Energetic, eager to take her place at all ceremonies, she was in the forefront of the religious processions that paraded the streets and entered the churches to sing Te Deums of praise, and the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents to rejoice at Heaven’s sign of approval. She herself rode out to see Coligny’s remains; she made a point of being present at executions whenever possible.


* * *

The King talked continually of the massacre. He longed, he said, to put back the clock, to live again through that fateful day of August the 23rd. ‘If I had that chance,’ he would sigh, ‘how differently I should act!’

Yet he was persuaded that the murder of Huguenots in Paris was not enough; so throughout the whole of France Catholics were ordered to commit murders and atrocities similar to those which had taken place in the capital. Readily the Catholics of Rouen, Blois, Tours and many other towns in the tortured land obeyed the commands that came from Paris.

There were some who protested, for there were Catholics in the provinces as humane as le Charron, the prévôt of Paris; chief among these were the Governors of Auvergne, Provence and Dauphine together with the Duc de Joyeuse of Languedoc, who refused to obey such command which came by word of mouth and would not kill until they received written orders from the King. In Burgundy, Picardy, Montpellier and in Lyons the governors declared that they had learned to take life for justice of war, but that cold-blooded murder was something with which they did not care to burden their souls.

This seemed like rebellion, and Catherine and her council were uncertain how to act until they decided on sending priests down to the rebellious provinces to explain to the citizens that St Michael, in a vision, had ordered the massacre.

This was accepted as the certain will of Heaven, and so the bloody orgy continued, and for weeks after the Eve of St Bartholomew thousands were slaughtered all over France.


* * *

When Philip of Spain heard the news he laughed aloud—as many said—for the first time in his life. Charles, he said, had now truly earned the title of the ‘Most Christian King’; he sent congratulations to Catherine for having brought up her son in her own image.

The Cardinal of Lorraine, who was in Rome at that time, gave the messenger who brought him news of the massacre a great reward. Rome was especially illumined to celebrate the death of so many of its enemies; Te Deums were sung, and the cannons of Castel St Angelo were fired in honour of the massacre. The Pope and his Cardinals went in special procession to the Church of St Mark, there to call God’s attention to the good and religious work of the faithful; and Gregory himself proceeded in state on foot from St Mark’s to St Louis’.

But if there was rejoicing in the Catholic world, there was deep consternation in England and Holland. William the Silent, who had been hoping for the help of France, through Coligny, was overcome with grief. He said that the King of France had been most evilly advised and that his realm would be plunged into fresh trouble ere long. The slaughtering of unsuspecting innocents, he went on, was no way in which to settle the differences of religion.

‘This,’ said Burleigh to the Queen of England, ‘is the greatest crime since the Crucifixion.’

A few weeks after the massacre, the King was in his apartments, which were full of members of the court, and they were trying to regain something of that gaiety which had once been theirs. It was not easy. There was no forgetting. Names were casually mentioned, and it would then be remembered with a shock that that person was no more. Such a short while ago he had been alive, full of gaiety; now he was dead, and there, among them, was his murderer. The massacre haunted them like some evil spectre which they had called up from the underworld and which would not now be banished.

As they sat or stood about, talking loudly, giving vent to laughter which was, more often than not, unnatural, a great croaking was heard outside the windows of the Louvre, and the croaking was accompanied by a flapping of wings.

There was a sudden silence in the apartment followed by a susurration. ‘It was as though,’ someone remarked afterwards, the angel of death hovered over the Louvre.’

Catherine, deeply disturbed, for she was as superstitious as any present, hurried to the window and, looking out, saw a flock of ravens flying just above the palace. She cried out and everyone ran to the windows to watch the birds. They flew round, cawing; they perched on the building; they flew against the windows; and they remained in the vicinity of the palace for a long time.

Although some assumed that the birds had been attracted by the carnage, all were unnerved that night.

Many believed that the birds were the spirits of those whom they had murdered come to haunt them and to remind them that their days also were numbered, that horrible death such as they had meted out to others might well await them.

Catherine called René and the Ruggieri brothers to her and demanded spells to protect her from impending evil.

The King called wildly to the birds: ‘Come . . . whoever you be. Come and kill us . . . Do to us what we did to them.’

Madeleine and Marie Touchet did their best to soothe him.

Alençon, who had been sulking because he had been told nothing of the proposed massacre and had not been allowed to have a part in it, was relieved and able maliciously to watch the effect of the birds on those about him. Margot and Navarre watched with a good conscience. Anjou went shuddering to his mother and would not leave her. Henry of Guise was unperturbed. If the birds were the spirits of dead Huguenots, he was sure that the spirit of his father would protect him. He had but kept the vow to avenge him which he had made on his father’s death.

But the King suffered most of all; and in the night he awakened from his sleep and ran screaming through the palace.

‘What is all the noise in the streets?’ he demanded. ‘Why do the bells ring? Why do the people shout and scream? Listen. Listen. I can hear them. They are coming to kill us . . . as we killed them.’

Then he fell on to the floor, his limbs jerking in his terror; he bit his clothes and threatened to bite any who came near him.

‘Stop them!’ he cried. ‘Stop the bells. Stop the people. Let us have done with bloodshed.’

Madeleine was brought to him. ‘Chariot,’ she whispered, ‘all is well. All is quiet. Chariot . . . Chariot . . . you must not distress yourself.’

‘But, Madelon, they will come for me . . . They will do to me what was done to them.’

‘They cannot touch you. They are dead and you are the King.’

‘They could return from their graves, Madelon. They have come as black birds to torment me. They are in the streets now, Madelon. Listen. Listen. They shout. They scream. They are ringing all the bells . . . .’

She led him to the window and showed him a quiet and sleeping Paris.

‘I heard them,’ he insisted. ‘I heard them.’

‘It was only in your dreams, my love.’

‘Oh, Madelon, I am responsible. I said so at the meeting. I . . . I did it all.’

‘You did not,’ she said. ‘It was not you. They did it. They forced you to it.’

‘I do not know, Madelon. I can remember it . . . parts of it. I can remember the bells . . . the shouting and the blood. But I cannot remember how it came about. How did it come about? My headpiece knows nothing of it.’

‘You knew nothing of it, my darling. You did not do it. It was they who did it.’

‘They . . .’ he stammered. ‘She . . . my evil genius, Madelon. It was my evil genius . .

Then he began to sob and declare once more that he could hear noises in the streets.

He kept Madelon with him, there at the window, looking out over the sleeping city.

Three

THE MEMORY OF THOSE TERRIBLE DAYS AND NIGHTS continued to hang over paris. Many of those who had taken part in the massacre were so troubled by conscience that they took their own lives; others went mad and ran screaming through the streets; some thought they were pursued by ghosts. So many were guilty. They could find some consolation in speaking together with venom and hatred of the woman whom they considered to have conceived the idea, to have inflamed them—the Italian woman. She was behind all the misery of France. Everyone knew that. The King was mad and he was controlled by that woman. He suffered more deeply than any; but there was no sign that Catherine suffered the slightest pangs of remorse.

Nor did she. She was not going to break a lifelong habit. She had learned not to look back, and she would not look back now. The massacre had been a necessity when it was committed, and it was no use regretting it after it was done. She was growing fatter; she looked in better health than she had for some time. An ambassador wrote to his goverment that she had the appearance of a woman who had successfully come through a bad illness. The illness had been her fear of Philip of Spain, and the cure was the massacre which had begun on St Bartholomew’s Eve.