Not many of the Huguenot gentlemen escaped from the toils so skilfully
drawn round them on that fatal Saturday night: yet there were a few. The
Count of Montgomery--the same who was the innocent cause of the death of
Henry II--got away safe, having been forewarned by a friend who swam
across the river to him. Guise set off in hot pursuit, and would
probably have caught him up had he not been waiting for the keys of the
city gate. Some sixty gentlemen, also, lodging near him in the Faubourg
St. Germain, were the companions of his flight.
Sully, afterward the famous minister of Henry IV, had a narrow escape.
He was in his twelfth year, and had gone to Paris in the train of Joan
of Navarre for the purpose of continuing his studies. "About three after
midnight," he says, "I was awoke by the ringing of bells and the
confused cries of the populace. My governor, St. Julian, with my
_valet-de-chambre_, went out to know the cause; and I never heard
of them afterward. They, no doubt, were among the first sacrificed to
the public fury. I continued alone in my chamber, dressing myself, when
in a few moments my landlord entered, pale and in the most utmost
consternation. He was of the Reformed religion, and, having learned what
was the matter, had consented to go to mass to save his life and
preserve his house from being pillaged.
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