[259] 'Innumera denique plebis multitudine.'—Flor. Rémond, _Hist. Hérés._ ii. p. 229. See also the _Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris_; Fontaine, _Hist. Catholique_; Maimbourg, _Hist. du Calvinisme_; and the _Chronique de François I._ CHAPTER XII. THE ELOQUENCE AND TORTURES OF FRANCIS I. (21ST JANUARY 1535.) [Sidenote: DINNER AT THE BISHOP'S.] [Sidenote: THE KING'S SPEECH.] All was not over: they had had the comedy (as it appeared to some); they were now to have the oratorical address, and then the tragedy. In order to stifle the Reformation, something more was wanted than relics, chanting, and images: blood must be shed. But first of all there should be a speech from the throne. We do not doubt the sincerity of the king in his oratorical movements. The personal offence that had been done to him, and the obstacles raised by the placards to his political plans, most assuredly engrossed him more than the cause of Catholicism; but all this was mixed up in his mind, and he was eloquent. The ambassadors,[260] the court, the parliament, the Bishop of Paris attended by the most distinguished of his clergy, the rector of the university with his principal doctors, the provost of the merchants, the sheriffs, and a great number of the leading officers and merchants of the city had received orders to assemble after dinner in the bishop's great hall. They expected a speech from the king, an event of no frequent occurrence in those times, which made them all the more impatient. Ere long Francis I. entered: his countenance was serious, sad, and even gloomy. His children, the other princes of the blood, the cardinals and great officers of state surrounded the throne, whence the king could be seen and heard by the whole assembly. He took his seat and said:[261] 'Messieurs, be not surprised if you do not see in my face that look which is usual to me, and that joy which animates me whenever I meet you. Do not marvel if the tricks of eloquence are foreign to my speech. I do not come to talk to you of myself; we have to treat this day of an offence done to the King of kings. It is proper that I should assume another style and language, another look and countenance, for I do not speak to you as a king and a master speaks to his subjects and his servants, but as being a subject and servant myself, and addressing those who are fellow-servants with me of our common King, of the Master of masters, who is God Almighty. What honour, what reverence, what obedience do we not owe to that great King!... What obligations does not this kingdom, more than any other, owe to Him, seeing that for thirteen or fourteen hundred years He has maintained it in peace and tranquillity with its friends, and in victory against its enemies! And if, sometimes, for sins committed against His divine goodness, He has wished to visit us with punishment in temporal things, He has done it with so little severity, that He has never exceeded the chastisement which a kind and