cause.” But why was he murdered? Perhaps the following passage from a letter written by the queen-mother to the French embassador in England may supply an answer: “We strongly suspect Villequier, Lignerolles, or Sarret; and it is possible that all three may be the authors of these fancies [Anjou’s refusal to marry Elizabeth]; if I were sure of it, I give you my word they should repent it.” If this foul murder be supposed to tell against the king, the affair of the Gastine Cross should be taken as a proof of his desire to conciliate his Protestant subjects. In the Rue St. Denis at Paris there lived a wealthy tradesman, Philip Gastine by name, who with his son Richard was accused and hanged for heresy and lending money to the rebels; another son was sentenced to the galleys for life; and the third banished (30th June, 1569). His house was pulled down, and in its place was erected a huge cross, with an inscription to the effect, that they had suffered “principally because they had celebrated the Lord’s Supper in that place.” According to the thirty-second article[498] of the Third Edict of Pacification, this cross was to be destroyed. The king gave the necessary orders, and Claude Marcel, provost of the merchants, fearing opposition, began to pull it down one dark night in December. He was interrupted by the populace, who paraded the city calling to arms. “The common people,” said Walsingham, “ease their stomachs only by uttering certain seditious words.” They went however beyond words, for there was a fierce riot, during which the mob burned two houses and killed a “sermoner.” The provost seems to have been rather faint-hearted in the matter, and the parliament actually wrote to remonstrate with the king for keeping his promise. Charles, who was then at Amboise, returned a very sharp answer (15th December, 1571): “I have received your remonstrance, which I will always listen to graciously so long as you show me due obedience. But seeing how you have behaved since my accession, and that you imagine I will suffer my orders to be despised, I will let you know that there never was a king more determined to be obeyed than I am.”[499] The captain of the watch was sent to Amboise to explain: he found the king very excited. “I am thoroughly vexed,” said Charles, “that the cross has not been pulled down or removed. I will have no delay: it is time it were down and over.[500] If you catch any rioter, hang him up at once with a label of _Séditieux_ round his neck.” The parliament apologized, and said very falsely that they had had nothing to do with the riots. On the night of the 19th December the cross was taken down and re-erected in the cemetery of the Innocents;[501] but the people were in such a mutinous state, and it was so difficult to keep the peace, that, on the 21st, the Duke of Montmorency hurried to Paris with a strong force of soldiers to put down the rioters. Some were killed, many ran