Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 6.djvu/23

Rh Birague, in whose mouth, however, a saying is put which points to quite different projects — the saying, that in order to deliver the King from his enemies he wanted only a few cooks. This last method was much more practical than the other, which is so wild as to be nearly impossible. How, indeed, could the suspicions of the Prot- estants fail to be aroused by the preparations for this mimic war, where the two parties, open enemies just before, were to be set at one an- other's throats? while it was but an awkward way of making the Huguenots an easy prey to brigade them together and put arms in their hands. Clearly, if the idea was to exterminate them then, it would have been much better to attack them in detail and disarmed.

But for my part I have a strong conviction that the massacre was not premeditated, and I cannot conceive how the opposite opinion has been adopted by authors who at the same time concur in representing Catherine as a very wicked woman no doubt, but also as possessing one of the most statesmanlike heads of the century. Let us put morals aside for a moment, and examine the supposed design from the point of view of expediency. Now, I hold that it was not expedient for the Court ; and, moreover, that it was so bunghngly carried out as to necessitate