The cries of the night of St. Bartholomew.

De Saint-Foy, in his Histoire de l’ordre du Saint Esprit, 1778 edition, cites the following passage, taken from a collection written by the marquis Christophe Juvénal des Ursins, lieutenant-general of the government of Paris, around the end of the year 1572, and printed in 1601. “On August 31, 1572, eight days after the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, I had supped at the Louvre, in the quarters of Madame Fiesque. The heat had been great throughout the day. We seated ourselves under a small arbor, on the banks of the river Seine, to breathe in the fresh air; suddenly, we heard in the air a horrible noise, of tumultuous voices and of groans mixed with cries of rage and of fury; we remained motionless, seized with dread, looking at one another from instant to instant, but without the courage to speak. I believe this noise lasted about half an hour. Certainly King Charles IX also heard it, was terrified, slept no more during the rest of the night and, although he did not comment on the fact the next day, his somber, pensive, hallucinated air was noticed. “If any prodigy ought not to find unbelievers, surely this is one of them, attested by Henry IV. n According to d’Aubigné, n in book I, chapter 6, page 561, this prince several times told us, among his most intimate associates and courtiers — and I have several living witnesses who never related the fact, without feeling themselves still seized with dread — that eight days after the massacre of Saint Bartholomew he saw a great quantity of crows perch and croak upon the pavilion of the Louvre; that on that same night, two hours after having lain down, Charles IX leaped from his bed, made those who were in his room rise and ordered them to verify what was happening there, for he heard in the air a great noise of voices groaning, in every way similar to that which he had perceived on the night of the massacre; that all these cries were so impressive, so striking and so articulated that Charles IX, judging that the enemies of the Montmorencys and of their partisans had surprised them and were attacking them, sent a detachment of his guards to prevent this new massacre; that the guards reported that Paris was tranquil and that the noise that was heard remained in the air.” (See the description of the scenes that took place that night in: A thorn in the historical flesh of France.)

Observation. – The fact narrated by Saint-Foy and Juvénal des Ursins has much analogy with the story of the phantom of Mademoiselle Clairon, related in our number of the month of January, with the difference that, on that occasion, a single Spirit manifested itself during two and a half years, whereas, after the night of Saint Bartholomew, an innumerable quantity of Spirits is said to have made the air ring for only a few moments. Besides, these two phenomena evidently have the same principle as that of the other contemporary facts of the same nature that we have already related, differing from them only in the detail of the form. Questioned about the cause of this manifestation, several Spirits answered that it was a punishment from God, which is easy to understand. [1]

[see Saint Bartholomew the Apostle.]

[2]

[see Henry IV of Bourbon.]

[3] [see Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné.]