Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

The King of Navarre commanded in the
royalist camp. The besiegers assaulted the town not
less than six times, and each time were repulsed. At
the end of the fifth week a mine was sprung, great
part of the wall was laid in ruins, and the soldiers
scaling the breach, Rouen was taken. It was the
first to drink that bitter cup which so many of the
cities of France were afterwards called to drain. For
a whole week it was given up to the soldiers. They
did their pleasure in it, and what that pleasure was
can be conceived without our describing it.
Permitting the veil to rest on the other horrors, we
shall select for description two deaths of very
different character. The first is that of Pastor
Augustin Marlorat. Of deep piety and great
erudition, he had figured conspicuously in the
Colloquy of Poissy, where the Reformation had
vindicated itself before the civil and ecclesiastical
grandees of France. Present in the city during the
five memorable weeks of the siege, his heroic
words, daily addressed to the citizens from the
pulpit, had been translated by the combatants into
heroic deeds on the wall. "You have seduced the
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