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abundance of noble young gentlemen, ladies and gentlewomen, inhumanly murdered, who little expected such a bloady fate; for they came from all parts to rejoice, in honour of the marriage of the King of Navarre; and instead of jollity and pleasures, they here met with an untimely death from bloody and cowardly Papists, who murder like devils, but dare not fight like men. In that night, and the two next days, there was slain in Paris above ten thousand persons of both sexes, and all ranks and ages, the bloody Papists not sparing the children in the cradle; insomuch, that the streets, market-place, and rivers, were dyed with blood,
The king and his confidents fearing that this massacre would not end the quarrel, but rather stir up the Protestants in other places to stand upon their own defence; he therefore sends messengers by post to all parts of the kingdom, often shifting horses for more speed, with express commands to the governors of all other towns and cities in France, to follow the example of Paris, and to destroy and kill all the Protestants which were amongst them.
As soon as the command was published, and that the King's letters came, the Papists fell with all imaginable fury upon all the Protestants at Meaux, Troys, Orleans, and other places, murdering them without pity or compassion.
The Pope, when he first heard the news of the massacre, appointed a day of public thanksgiving to God, where Te Deum was sung for joy in the church of St. Louis. He likewise published a Bull of pardons and extraordinary indulgence, to such as should pray for the heavenly assistance
