a term used to signify the sudden and promiscuous butchery of a multitude. The most atrocious example of this kind upon record is that called the *Parisian Massacre*, or *Massacre of St Bartholomew's Day*. The Parisian massacre was carried on with such detestable perfidy, and executed with such a bloody cruelty, as would surpass all belief, were it not attested by the most undeniable evidence. In the year 1572, in the reign of Charles IX., many of the principal Protestants were invited to Paris, under a solemn oath of safety, upon occasion of the marriage of the king of Navarre with the French king's sister; viz., the king of Navarre's mother, Coligny, admiral of France, with other nobles. The queen-dowager of Navarre, a zealous Protestant, was poisoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was solemnized; and on the 24th of August 1572, being Bartholomew's day, about daybreak, upon the toll of the bell of the church of St Germain, the butchery began. The admiral was basely murdered in his own house; and then thrown out of the window, to gratify the malice of the duke of Guise; his head was afterwards cut off, and sent to the king and queen-mother; and his body, after a thousand indignities offered to it, hung up by the feet on a gibbet. After this, the murderers ravaged the whole city of Paris, and butchered in three days above ten thousand lords, gentlemen, prelats, and people of all ranks. An horrible scene of things, says Thuanus, when the very streets and passages resounded with the noise of those that met together for murder and plunder; the groans of those who were dying, and the shrieks of such as were just going to be butchered, were everywhere heard; the bodies of the slain thrown out of the windows; the courts and chambers of the houses filled with them; the dead bodies of others dragged through the streets, their blood running down the channels in such plenty, that torrents seemed to empty themselves in the neighbouring river: and, in a word, an innumerable multitude of men, women with child, maidens, and children, were all involved in one common destruction; and the gates and entrances of the king's palace all befouled with their blood.

From the city of Paris the massacre spread almost throughout the whole kingdom. In the city of Meaux they threw above two hundred into jail; and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the Protestants, they executed their fury on those they had imprisoned, and calling them out one by one, they were killed, as Thuanus expresses, like sheep in a market; the bodies of some were flung into ditches, and of others into the river Maine. In Orleans they murdered above five hundred men, women, and children, and enriched themselves with their spoil. The same cruelties were practised at An-

4 Q 2 It would be endless to mention the butcheries committed at Valence, Romaine, Rouen, &c. We shall, therefore, only add, that, according to Thuanus, above thirty thousand Protestants were destroyed in this massacre, or as others with greater probability affirm, above one hundred thousand.

Thuanus himself calls this a most detestable villainy; and, in abhorrence of St Bartholomew's day, used to repeat these words of P. Statius, Silv. v. iii. ver. 88. &c.

Excidat illa dies ævo, ne postera credant Secula. Nos curte taceamus, et obruta multa Nocte tegi propriæ patiamus crimina gentis.

In the words of Job, chap. iii. ver. 3. &c. "Let that day perish; and let it not be joined unto the days of the year. Let darknesses and the shadow of death stain it," &c. And yet, as though this had been the most heroic transaction, and could have procured immortal glory to the authors of it, medals were struck at Paris in honour of it.

But how were the news of this butchery received at Rome, that faithful city, that holy mother of churches! How did the vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, and the father of the Christian world, relish it? Let Thuanus tell the horrid truth. "When the news, says he, came to Rome, it was wonderful to see how they exulted for joy. On the 6th of September, when the letters of the pope's legate were read in the assembly of the cardinals, by which he assured the pope that all was transacted by the express will and command of the king, it was immediately decreed that the pope should march with his cardinals to the church of St Mark, and in the most solemn manner give thanks to God for so great a blessing conferred on the see of Rome and the Christian world; and that on the Monday after, solemn mass should be celebrated in the church of Minerva; at which the pope, Greg. XIII., and cardinals were present; and that a jubilee should be published throughout the whole Christian world, and the cause of it declared to be, to return thanks to God for the extirpation of the enemies of the truth and church in France. In the evening the cannon of St Angelo were fired, to testify the public joy; the whole city illuminated with bonfires; and no one sign of rejoicing omitted that was usually made for the greatest victories obtained in favour of the Roman church.