Page:History of the Devil, ancient and modern (2).pdf/23

 trumpeter, danced in his habit, ſounded a levit,

and then went out and rung the alarm bell (which

was the ſignal to begin the maſſacre) half an hour

before the time appointed, leſt the king's mind

ſhould alter and his heart fail him.

If this ſtory be not made upon him (for we

ſhould not ſlander the Devil) it would ſeem he

was thoroughly ſatisfied in King Charies the IX's

ſteadineſs in his cauſe; for the king it ſeems had

relaxed a little once before: Satan might be a-

fraid he would fall off again, and ſo prevent the

execution. Others ſay, that he did relent imme-

diately after ringing the alarm-bell; but then it

was too late; the work was begun, and the rage

of blood having been let looſe among the people,

there was no recalling the order, which was exe-

cuted fully; for every Proteſtant in Paris was

that night butchered, and they had been collected

by fair promiſes from every corner in France.

So long a ſeries of deluſion followed this, that

even the famous doctors of the faculty at Paris,

when John Fauſtus brought the firſt printed books

that had then been ſeen in the world, or at leaſt

not there, into the city and ſold them for manu

ſcripts, they were ſurpriſed at the performance,

and queſtioned Fauſtus about it; but he affirming

they were manuſcripts, and that he kept a great

many clerks employed to write them, they were

ſatisfied for a while.

But looking further into the work, they obſer-

ved the exact agreement of every book one with

another that every line ſtood in the ſame place,

ever page a like number of lines, every line a

like number of words; if a word was miſ-ſpelt in

one, it was alſo miſ-ſpelt in all; nay, that if

there was a blot in one it was alike in all; they

began again to muſe how this ſhould be? in a

word, the learned divines, not being able to