markably fond. He was particularly curious with regard to the construction of clocks and watches. And having found, after repeated trials, that he could not get any two of them to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with a mixture of surprize and regret, on his own folly, in having bestowed so much time and labor, in the more vain attempt of bringing mankind to a precise uniformity of sentiment, concerning the intricate and mysterious doctrines of religion. And here, after two years retirement, he was seized with a fever, which carried him off in the fifty-ninth year of his A. D. 1557.

age,

CHAP. LVI.

Of the Massacre of the Hugonots, or Protestants, at Paris, A. Ď. 1572.

FRANCIS II. being a weak, sickly, and inactive prince, his power was entirely engrossed by a prince of the house of Guise, uncle to his wife, the beautiful queen of Scotland. This engrossment of power encouraged the Bourbon, the Montmorenci, and other great families, to form a strong opposition against the government. Anthony king of Navarre, was at the head of the Bourbon family. But the queen-mother, the famous Catharine of Medicis, being obliged to take part with the Guises, the confederacy, who had adopted the cause of Hugonotism, was

broken in pieces, when the sudden death of Francis happened in the year 1560.

The event took place, while the prince of Conde, brother to the king of Navarre, was under sentence of death, for a conspiracy against the court. But the queen-mother saved him, to balance the interest of the Guises; so that the sole direction of the affairs fell into her hands during the minority of her second son Charles IX. Her regency was a continual series of dissimulation, treachery and murder. The duke of Guise, who was the scourge of the Protestants, was treacherously murdered by one Poltrot, at the siege of Orleans; and the murderer was thought to have been instigated by the famous Coligni, admiral of France, who was then at the head of the protestant party. Three civil wars succeeded each other. At last the court pretended to grant the Hugonots a very advantageous peace, and a match was concluded between Henry, the young king of Navarre, a protestant, and the French king's sister.

The heads of the protestants were invited to celebrate the nuptials at Paris, with the infernal view of butchering them all, if possible, in one night. The admiral was wounded by a shot from a window, a few days after the mrariage; yet the court still found means to quiet the sus picions of the Hugonots, till the eve of St. Bartholomew, when a massacre commenced, to which there is nothing parallel in the history of mankind, either for the dissimulation that led to it, or the cruelty and barbarity, with which it was put in execution. The protestants, as a.

body, were devoted to destruction; the young king of Navarre, and the prince of Conde only being excepted from the general doom, and that on condition they should change their religion.

Charles in person led the way to this butchery, which was chiefly conducted by the duke of Guise. The guards had been ordered to be under arms. The ringing of the bell was the signal; and the catholic citizens, though unprepared for such a scene, zealously seconded the fury of the soldiery, imbruing their hands, without remorse, in the blood of their neighbors, of their companions, and even their relations. Persons of every condition, age, and sex, suspected of adhering to the reformed opinions, were involved in one undistinguished ruin. About five hundred gentlemen, and men of rank, among whom was Coligni, with many other leaders of the party, were murdered at Paris alone; and near ten thousand persons of inferior condition. The same barbarous orders were sent to all the provinces; and a like carnage ensued at Rouen, Lyons, and several other cities. Sixty thousand protestants are supposed to have been butchered in different parts of the kingdom.

As an apology for this barbarous perfidy, Charles pretended that a conspiracy of the Hugonots to seize his person, had been suddenly detected; and that he had been necessitated, for his own defence, to proceed to extremities against them.

At Rome, and in Spain, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which no popish writer of the

present age mentions without detestation, was the subject of public rejoicing, and solemn thanks were returned to God for its success.

Among the protestants it excited incredible horror; a striking picture of which is drawn by Fenelon, the French ambassador at the court of England, in his account of his first audience after that barbarous transaction. "A gloomy sorrow," says he, "sat on every face; silence, as in the dead of night, reigned through all the chambers of the royal apartment; the ladies and courtiers, clad in deep mourning, were ranged on each side, and as I passed through them, not one bestowed on me a favorable look, or made the least return to my salutes."

CHAP. LVII.

The Origin of the Republic of Holland.

THE tyranny of Philip of Spain made the Dutch attempt to throw off his yoke, which occasioned a general insurrection. The counts Hoorn, Egmont, and the prince of Orange, appearing at the head of it, and Luther's reformation gaining ground at the same time in the Netherlands, his disciples joined the mal-contents. Whereupon king Philip introduced a kind of inquisition, in order to suppress them; and many thousands were put to death by that court, besides those who perished by the sword. Count Hoorn and count Egmont were taken

and beheaded. But the prince of Orange, whom they elected to be their Stadtholder, retiring into Holland, that province, and those adjacent to it, entered into a treaty for their mutual defence.

The deputies accordingly met at Utrecht, in the year 1579, and signed that famous deed, in appearance so slight, but in reality so solid, of seven provinces independent of each other, actuated by different interests, yet as closely connected by the great tie of liberty, as the bundle of arrows, the arms and emblem of their republit.

It was agreed, That the seven provinces shall unite themselves in interest as one province, reserving to each particular province and city, all its privileges, rights, customs, and statutes; that in all disputes between either of the provinces, the rest should interpose only as mediators; and that they should assist each other with life and fortune, against every foreign attempt upon any particular province.

The first coin struck after this alliance is strongly expressive of the perilous situation of the infant commonwealth. It represented a ship, struggling amid the waves, unassisted by sails or oars, with this motto: INCERTUM QUO FATA FERANT; "I know not whither fate may carry

me."

Though these revolters at first were thought so despicable as to be termed beggars by their tyrants, their perseverence and courage were such, under the prince of Orange, and the assistance afforded them by queen Elizabeth, both in troops and money, that they forced the crown of Spain