Army, had agreed to a politique conversion to Catholicism, famously excul-
pating his apostasy with ‘Paris is worth a mass’ so as be to crowned King
of France. However, his nonchalance did not convince the Catholic zealot
François Ravaillac, more representative of the age, who assassinated Henry
in 1610.
Milton also galvanised British public opinion with his famous Sonnet,
whose gory and graphic images describe massacres also seen in English and
Dutch woodcuts taken from eyewitness diplomatic descriptions.
On the late Massacre in Piedmont
Avenge O Lord thy slaughtered Saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the alpine mountains cold,
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old
When all our fathers worshipped Stocks and Stones,
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy Sheep and in their ancient Fold
Slayn by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother and infant down the rocks. Their moans
The Vales redoubled to the Hills, and they
To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
Over all the Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple Tyrant: that from these may grow
A hundred-fold, who having learnt thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
Richard Newbury (first of three instalments)
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