To give greater weight and consistence to the party, it was thought advisable to provide for it a chief of a more elevated rank than Montmorenci and Turenne. The duke of Alençon, one of the king’s brothers, who is known in English history as the duke of Anjou, was the chosen individual. With many defects, and a scanty share of virtues, he had some qualifications for being head of the party. To the protestants he was recommended by his being far less hostile than the rest of his family, and by his having been an unalterable friend of the murdered admiral Coligni. Alençon was irritated by the restraint, little short of imprisonment, under which he was kept at court, and by the refusal to confer on him the lieutenant generalship of the kingdom, which had been held by his brother Henry; and was consequently not averse from joining those who could contribute to gratify his ambition. It has, indeed, been supposed, and the supposition is by no means improbable, that the party, or at least the protestant branch of it, would have been willing to raise him to the throne, to the exclusion of Henry, his elder brother. Two of the principal agents in forwarding the design of the malecontents were la Mole, and the count de Coconas, the favourites of the duke of Alençon. La Mole was an officer, a native of Provence. Among the ladies of the court he was much admired for his liveliness and companionable qualities. His time was divided, not quite equally, between sinning and hearing mass; the latter of which he attended three or four times a day. It was said of him by the king, that whoever wished to keep a register of la Mole’s debaucheries, need only reckon up his masses. He was notoriously one of the gallants of Margaret of Valois, as Coconas was of the duchess of Nevers, the eldest of three sisters, who were called the Graces. Coconas was one of the many Italians who were attracted into France by the hope of receiving patronage from Catherine of Medicis. One anecdote will suffice to demonstrate the fiendishness of his nature. During the massacre of St. Bartholomew, he bought from the populace thirty hugonot prisoners, that he might gratify himself, by subjecting them to torture both of body and mind. After having, by a promise of saving their lives, induced them to renounce their faith, he put them slowly to death by numerous superficial dagger wounds. Of this act he was accustomed to boast. The fate of such a man can excite no pity.