History of the United Netherlands, 1588b — John Shaqi
History of the United Netherlands, 1588bMotley, John Lothrop
History
History of the United Netherlands, 1588b
Motley, John Lothrop
Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648
The mob had been surging through all the streets and lanes, until,
as by a single impulse, chains were stretched across the streets, and
barricades thrown up in all the principal thoroughfares. About noon the
Duke of Guise, who had been sitting quietly in his hotel, with a very few
armed followers, came out into the street of the Hotel Montmorency, and
walked calmly up and down, arm-in-aim with the Archbishop of Lyons,
between a double hedge-row of spectators and admirers, three or four
ranks thick. He was dressed in a white slashed doublet and hose, and
wore a very large hat. Shouts of triumph resounded from a thousand
brazen throats, as he moved calmly about, receiving, at every instant,
expresses from the great gathering in the Place Maubert.
"Enough, too much, my good friends," he said, taking off the great hat--
("I don't know whether he was laughing in it," observed one who was
looking on that day)--"Enough of 'Long live Guise!' Cry 'Long live the
King!'"
There was no response, as might be expected, and the people shouted more
hoarsely than ever for Madam League and the Balafre. The Duke's face was
full of gaiety; there was not a shadow of anxiety upon it in that
perilous and eventful moment. He saw that the day was his own.
For now, the people, ripe, ready; mustered, armed, barricaded; awaited
but a signal to assault the King's mercenaries, before rushing to the
palace: On every house-top missiles were provided to hurl upon their
heads. There seemed no escape for Henry or his Germans from impending
doom, when Guise, thoroughly triumphant, vouchsafed them their lives.
"You must give me these soldiers as a present, my friends," said he to
the populace.
And so the armed Swiss, French, and German troopers and infantry,
submitted to be led out of Paris, following with docility the aide-de-
camp of Guise, Captain St. Paul, who walked quietly before them, with his
sword in its scabbard, and directing their movements with a cane. Sixty
of them were slain by the mob, who could not, even at the command of
their beloved chieftain, quite forego their expected banquet. But this
was all the blood shed on the memorable day of Barricades, when another
Bartholomew massacre had been, expected.
Meantime; while Guise was making his promenade through the city,
exchanging embraces with the rabble; and listening to the coarse
congratulations and obscene jests of the porters and fishwomen, the poor
King sat crying all day long in the Louvre. The Queen-Mother was with
him, reproaching him bitterly with his irresolution and want of
confidences in her, and scolding him for his tears. But the unlucky
Henry only wept the more as he cowered in a corner.
"These are idle tears," said Catherine. "This is no time for crying.
And for myself, though women weep so easily; I feel my heart too deeply
wrung for tears. If they came to my eyes they would be tears of blood."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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