Note 597 — Chapter XIII · THE FESTIVAL OF BLOOD. [August and September, 1572.]

Juan de Olaegui says that Guise “le dió un pistoletazo en la cabeza,” and then flung him from the window. This is probably the pistol-shot which so alarmed the royal murderers at the Louvre, though another report (Alva’s Bulletin) says it was fired at the body as it lay dead in the court-yard. The Neustadt letter represents Coligny as struggling vigorously against four Swiss soldiers (das irer vier kümmerlich ime bezwingen mögten), and that a French soldier killed him by shooting him in the mouth. Behm was rewarded with the hand of a natural daughter of Cardinal Lorraine, and Philip II. gave him 6000 scudi (ostensibly as a dowry) for his life. See Petrucci’s letter (September 16, 1572), in Alberi, Vita di Caterina, p. 149. In 1575 he was captured by the Huguenots near Jarnac, as he was returning from Spain, and put to death.