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 MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 107

deemed more probable, more consistent with testimony and with the position of affairs at the time, that Coligny succeeded in acquiring extraordinary influence over the mind of Charles, that his advice really predominated, and that the sanguinary resolution was suddenly embraced by his adversaries as the last means of regaining power. This opinion is made plausible by many facts. I t is supported by several writers who were then living, and by the document known as the Confession of Anjou. The best authorities of the present day are nearly unanimous in rejecting premeditation. The evidence on the' opposite side is stronger than they suppose. The doom which awaited the Huguenots had been long expected and often foretold. People at a distance, Monluc in Languedoc, and the Protestant Mylius in Italy, dre\v the same inference from the news that caIne from the court. Strangers meeting on the road discussed the infatuation of the Admira1. 1 Letters brought from Rome to the Emperor the significant intimation that the birds were all caged, and now was the time to lay hands on them. 2 Duplessis-Mornay, the future chief of the Huguenots, was so much oppressed with a sense of coming evil, that he hardly ventured into the streets on the \vedding-day. He warned the Admiral of the general belief among their friends that the marriage concealed a plot for their ruin, and that the festivities would end in some horrible surprise. B Coligny \vas proof against suspicion. Several of his follo\vers left Paris, but he remained unmoved. At one moment the excessive readiness to grant all his requests shook the confidence of his son-in-Ia\v Téligny; but the doubt vanished so completely that Té1igny himself prevented the flight of his partisans after the attempt on the Admiral's life. On the morning of the fatal day, Montgomery sent word to Walsingham that Coligny was safe under protection of 1 De Thou, Jlr'Iémoires, p, 9. 2 II me dist qu'on luy avoist escript de Rome, n'avoit que trois semaines ou environ, sur Ie propos des noces du roy de Navarre en ces propres termes; Que à ceste heure que taus les oiseaux estoient en cage, on les pouvoit prendre taus ensemble (Vulcob to Charles IX" Sept. 26, 1572; N oailles, iii, 2I4), 3 il/tfmoires de DuPlessis-Mornay, j, 38; Ambert, Duplessis-Alornay, p. 3 8.