Note 278 — Chapter V · FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. TO THE MASSACRE AT VASSY. [1560–1562.]

There are many contemporary and contradictory accounts of the Vassy massacre. Description du Saccagement exercé cruellement en la Ville de Vassy. Caen, 1562; Discours au Vrai de ce qui est dernièrement advenu à Vassi. Paris, 1562. This account says that the duke heard mass at Dampmartin, and then went on to Vassy, where he alighted at the convent. The Discours entier de la Persecution ... en la Ville de Vassy, le 1 mars 1562, says that the duke was disturbed at mass by the singing of the Huguenots [who were outside the walls], and that on his sending to desire them to “wait until mass was over, when they might sing till they burst,” they sang all the louder. See also Alberi: Vita di Caterina de Medici, p. 92, note. Dr. Lingard asserts that Brantome was present at the massacre, but the abbé says plainly, “Je n’y étais pas.” The account in the text is substantially Davila’s; the duke’s own statement is in Castelnau.