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

And truly, had French Protestantism been a
mere political association, with oniy earthly bonds
to hold its members together, and only earthly
motives to inspire them with hope and urge them to
action, the St. Bartholomew Massacre would have
terminated its career. But the cause was Divine; it
drew its life from hidden sources, and so,
flourishing from what both friend and foe believed
to be its grave, it stood up anew, prepared to fight
ever so many battles and mount ever so many
scaffolds, in the faith that it would yet triumph in
that land which had been so profusely watered with
its blood.
The massacre swept the cities and villages on
the plains of France with so unsparing a fury, that
in many of these not a Protestant was left
breathing; but the mountainous districts were less
terribly visited, and these now became the
stronghold of Huguenotism. Some fifty towns
situated in these parts closed their gates, and stood
to their defense. Their inhabitants knew that to
admit the agents of the government was simply to
offer their throats to the assassins of Charles; and
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