The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

THE HUGUENOT WARS. 47
illness of five days; not without suspicion of introd.
poison, and her son became King of Navarre.
The court of France went into mourning over
the Queen's death, but the preparations for
the wedding went steadily on. The day came,
August 18, 1572, and the marriage of Marguerite
to Henry, King of Navarre, was solemnized
on a platform in front of the principal
entry of the church of Paris, Cardinal Lorraine
officiating, and leaving off the Mass by
express order of the King that he might please
the Protestants. The festivities continued day
after day. On Friday, August 22, Coligny
was invited by the King to attend a council at
the Louvre, and from there he went to witness
a game between the King and Guise, and between
two Huguenot gentlemen at the Tennis
court. As he returned to his place of lodging
(No. 144, Rue Rivole, at present), while walk- coUgny
ing slowly up a narrow street, he was shot ^^°*
twice; one ball shattering his hand, and the "572.^'
other lodging in his right arm near the
shoulder. The shot was fired from the house
of the preceptor of the Guises. The house was
searched, but the assassin had escaped; and a
man was seen riding in full haste from the
King's stables. When the news of the assault
reached the King, he uttered his usual passionate
oaths, and declared that the house of
the Guises should be ransacked for the as-
sassin, though he himself had offered 50,000
crowns for Coligny 's head. He visited the Admiral,
and his apparent sympathy covered up
all suspicion of any knowledge that a massacre
had been planned. The Huguenot Lords desired
now to leave the city, but King Charles
explained the assassination as an act of malice,
fostered by a grudge of the Guises, who had
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