The Catholic Reformation 1 79 war permits. But, gentlemen, if you will reread my " Justifi- cation," published thirteen years ago, you will find there the letters of a deceitful and hypocritical king, who thought to deceive me by his false and honeyed words, just as now he would stun me by his threats and the thunder of his denunciations. . . . As for me personally, you see, gentlemen, that it is my head that they are looking for, and that they have vowed my death by offering such a great sum of money. They say that the war can never come to an end so long as I am among you. Might it please God that my perpetual exile, or even my death, should bring you a true deliverance from all the evils and calamities which the Spaniards are prepar- ing for you and which I have so often seen them considering in council and devising in detail ! How agreeable to me would be such a banishment! how sweet death itself! . . . Why have I so often endangered my life, what reward shall I expect for my long labors for you, which have extended into old age, and for the loss of my goods, if it be not to obtain and purchase your liberty, even at the cost of my blood if necessary? If, then, gentlemen, you believe that my exile, or even my death, may serve you, I am ready to obey your behests. Here is my head, over which no prince or monarch has authority save you. Dispose of it as you will for the safety and preservation of our commonwealth. But if you judge that such little experience and energy as I have acquired through long and assiduous labors, if you judge that the remainder of my possessions and of my life can be of ser- vice to you, I dedicate them to you and to the fatherland. VI. The Wars of Religion in France The statesman and fair-minded historian, De Thou (155 3—16 1 7), who as a young man witnessed the Mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew, thus describes that terrible event.
