Henry M. Baird · 289 of 379

CHAPTER XI · Massacres in holy week.

While the intrigues of the Duchess of Valentinois and other bigots had been successful at court, the enemies of the Huguenots had not been idle in other parts of France. Fearful of the effect which the apparent union between Catharine and the King of Navarre might produce in accelerating the advance of the reformed doctrines, they resolved to stir up the zeal of the populace—that portion of the people that retained the strongest devotion for the traditional faith—in the country as well as in the capital. Holy week furnished opportunities that were eagerly embraced. Fanatical priests and monks wrought up the excitable mob to a frenzy. When their passions had reached a fervent heat, it was easy to bring on seditious explosions, the blame of which could be attached to the other party. "Few cities in the realm," says Abbé Bruslart in his journal, "escaped at this time riots and tumultuous scenes occasioned by the new religion." Amiens, Pontoise, and Paris itself were among the scenes of these disorders. Twenty cities witnessed the slaughter of Protestants by the infuriated rabble.