Note 76 — Chapter XIII · CATHERINE DE’ MEDICI AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS

[Martinl says: “Nothing definite can be affirmed as to the exact number of the victims: the Martyrologe des réformés places it at 30,000; M. de Thou thinks this figure somewhat exaggerated; the Réveille-matin speaks of no less than 100,000 dead; Capilupi speaks of 25,000; La Popelinière of more than 20,000; Papyre Masson, one of the panegyrists of the occasion, reduces the number to 10,000. The last figure is too low; about twenty thousand appears to be the most probable estimate.” This estimate of Martin’s, confessedly only conjectural, is perhaps a trifle conservative. Sullyj thought that 70,000 perished throughout France. Davilai estimated the number killed in Paris at 10,000, over 500 of whom were nobles. This is manifestly overdrawn, when we consider that the massacre of the first night was for the most part confined to the north of the Seine. Possibly about three thousand may have perished in and about Paris and twenty-five thousand in the rest of France. But this, let it be repeated, is mere conjecture.]