Other emotions, those of anguish and terror, were next to be aroused. After displaying his eloquence, the king was about to display his cruelty. 'Francis, always in extremes,' says a very catholic historian,[264] 'did not disdain to pollute his eyes with a spectacle full of barbarity and horror.' On the road between St. Genevieve and the Louvre, two scaffolds had been prepared, one at the Marksman's Cross in the Rue St. Honoré, and the other at the Halles. Some of the most excellent men that France possessed were about to be burnt after suffering atrocious tortures. Altars, galleries, and inscriptions had been placed on the bridges and in the streets. On the bridge of Notre Dame, around a fountain, surmounted by a large crucifix, these lines were inscribed: Ipsi peribunt, tu autem permanebis. (Ps. cii.) Inimicos ejus induam confusione. (Ps. cxxxii.) Videbunt in quem transfixerunt. (John xix.)[265] A little farther on stood an altar with an invocation to the Virgin and all the saints to give help, strength, and grace against the attacks of the enemies of the host. In other places were four stanzas in French, each of which ended with this line: France florit sur toutes nations.[266] The king with his family, the nobles, and the rest of the procession, having resumed his march, made his first halt at the Marksman's Cross. Morin, the cruel lieutenant-criminal, then brought forward three evangelical christians destined to be burnt 'to appease the wrath of God.' They were the excellent Valeton, receiver of Nantes; Master Nicholas, clerk to the registrar of the Châtelet, and another.[267] The people were so excited by the procession, and by the cries raised in every quarter, and even by the throne, against the reformers, that, when the martyrs appeared, they rushed furiously upon them to snatch them from the hangman's hands, and tear them to pieces. The guard drove them back, and the disciples of the Gospel were preserved for a more frightful death. [Sidenote: THE STRAPPADO.]