On the other hand, the Catholics had their complaints. At Pamiers the Huguenots attacked a procession, killed some of the clergy and burned their houses.[379] At Soissons they pillaged the churches, demolished the beautiful painted windows, broke the organ, melted the bells, stripped the lead off the roofs, plundered the shrines of their gold and jewels, burned the relics of the saints, and tore up the charters and title-deeds belonging to the clergy. Similar tumults occurred at Montauban and other towns. Where the Catholics were the strongest, they fell upon the Huguenots; where the latter, they attacked the Catholics. At one time there is a rumor of an attempt to assassinate the king; at another, of an atrocious book ascribed to Sureau, a Protestant pastor, in which the doctrine is boldly affirmed that “it is lawful to slay a king or a queen who resists the Gospel Reformation.” Then an anonymous letter is found at the door of Catherine’s bed-chamber, threatening her with the fate of President Minard and the Duke of Guise, unless she permits complete liberty of conscience to the Reformed party. Many of the atrocities we have recorded were owing to the weakness of the central government. It must be remembered that the several provinces of France were under their own governors, who held their offices by an almost hereditary right, and that the king had not always the power, even when he had the inclination, to preserve peace. There were few like that rough warrior Montluc, who kept Gascony so quiet that for three years “horseman or footman did not steal so much as a pullet.” He hanged two Catholic soldiers for infringing the edict, and two Huguenots who had committed a similar offense “were shortly strung up to keep the others company.” And he continues: “When these good people saw that neither one side nor the other would meet with any indulgence if they transgressed, they began to like and associate with one another. I believe if every one had done the same, without favor to either side, we should never have had so many troubles.”