"
"Robert-Jean-Rene Briquemart, Comte de Villemongis, guilty of the
crime of /lese-majeste/, and of attempts against the person of the
king!" called the clerk.
The count dipped his hands in the blood of the Baron de Raunay, and
said:--
"May this blood recoil upon those who are really guilty of those
crimes."
The Reformers chanted:--
"Thou broughtest us into the snare;
Thou laidest afflictions upon our loins;
Thou hast suffered our enemies
To ride over us."
"You must admit, monseigneur," said the Prince de Conde to the papal
nuncio, "that if these French gentlemen know how to conspire, they
also know how to die."
"What hatreds, brother!" whispered the Duchesse de Guise to the
Cardinal de Lorraine, "you are drawing down upon the heads of our
children!"
"The sight makes me sick," said the young king, turning pale at the
flow of blood.
"Pooh! only rebels!" replied Catherine de' Medici.
The chants went on; the axe still fell. The sublime spectacle of men
singing as they died, and, above all, the impression produced upon the
crowd by the progressive diminution of the chanting voices, superseded
the fear inspired by the Guises.
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