Henry M. Baird · 291 of 379

CHAPTER XI · Assault on the house of Longjumeau.

If such riotous attacks followed the preaching of the ecclesiastics in the provinces, the demonstrations of hostility to the exercises of the Protestants could not be of a milder type in the midst of the turbulent populace of Paris, and within a stone's throw of the Collége de la Sorbonne. Toward the end of April information was received that the city residence of the Sieur de Longjumeau, situated on the Pré aux Clercs, was becoming a haunt of the Huguenots. It was not long before the rabble, with ranks recruited from the neighboring colleges, instituted an assault. But they met with a resistance upon which they had not counted. Forewarned of his danger, Longjumeau had gathered beneath his roof a number of friendly nobles, and laid in a good supply of arms. The undisciplined crowd fled before the well-directed fire of the defenders, and left several men dead and a larger number wounded on the field. Not satisfied with this victory by force of arms, Longjumeau resorted to parliament. But the court displayed its usual partiality for the Roman Catholic faith. While it abstained from justifying the assailants, and forbade the students from assembling in the neighborhood, it reiterated the adage that "there is nothing more incompatible than the co-existence of two different religions in the same state," censured the nobleman's conduct, and ordered him forthwith to retire to his castle at Longjumeau.