France had now been baptized with the blood of the martyrs !

"In the midst of perils, opposition and persecution, the first national synod was called at the metropolis of the kingdom. This council published to the world their confession, which is entitled, ' The Confession of Faith held and Professed by the Reformed Churches of France, Received and Enacted by their First National Synod, Celebrated in the City of Paris, and year of our Lord, 1559.'

" In their contests at this period the Huguenot forces were led by the celebrated and brave Coligny and the Prince of Conde, two illustrious names in their annals. The Duke of Guise headed the papal annies. Towns were taken and retaken; when the Huguenots triumphed, they destroyed altars and images ; and the Romanists in their turn burned all the Bibles they could seize. Such were the effects of fanaticism on both sides. To assert that the excesses were only commited by one party would be untrue, and that some of our race were allied to angels ; but we hazard nothing in saying that the reformed, in almost every instance, resorted to arms from motives of self-preservation."

" Upon Sunday, August the 24th, 1572, was perpetrated the massacre of St. Bartholomew. De Thou, a popish historian, relates that thirty thousand perished on this terrible occasion. Another estimates one hundred thousand. In Paris alone, they amounted to ten thousand; and, among the number, five hundred Huguenot lords, knights, and military officers, with several thousand gentlemen.