Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/110

 The second quotation is from Comber’s “History of the Parisian Massacre,” p. 207:—

It appears from the Vidame’s own statement that the Duke of Guise actually entered his house before he could escape, but that he concealed himself, and at length secretly got access to the King, who gave him a safe conduct. Instead of being again duped, and going home to be murdered, as the King intended, he used the royal autograph as a passport to the coast of France, and sailed to England, where he landed on the 7th September. He wrote a Latin letter to Lord Burghley (Strype’s Parker, Appendix No. 70), of which the following is a translation:—

“, — I have been delivered from the Parisian executions, and have slipped out of the hands of Guise, who first pursued me into my very house, and afterwards wove every kind of snare around me. At length, when they thought me inveigled by the King’s safeguard, and it was reported to them that I was at home, they hasten to assault me with open violence. But God, by His favour, has infatuated their counsel, and brought me to the sea unknown to myself; and having embarked on board ship, He has led me hither to you. Nothing, next to the avenging of this impious crime, is so desired by me as to come into the presence of her Majesty, on whose piety, power, and prudent counsel, evidently depends the only hope of curbing that fury so openly spreading in the Christian world. However much I may be carried away by my great desire, I have been unwilling to approach the Queen inopportunely and indiscreetly. I shall wait her Majesty’s resolution. In the meantime I shall inform my family how happily God has provided for my safety. I shall write to the King (although I shudder intensely at the thought of him) that, if I can, I may soothe his savage heart, that he may not proceed to more cruel measures against my wife on account of what may appear to him my contempt of his promise to me as to my safety — a promise not free from subtlety and remarkable imposture — yet the blame of such contempt I must fling back upon another. May God give counsel, who has already given succour, and has brought me to a safe port. Beyond measure I desire to see and hear for myself how your people are affected by such an unheard-of calamity. Meanwhile I ask your Lordship to recall to her