Guise mercenaries attack the invalided Coligny at his house at dawn on the 24th, St. Bartholomew's Day, after killing his guard: striking repeated blows, they finally toss the admiral, still living, from the window to the street, where one of Guise's henchmen cuts off his head.

Rumors fly, and both the neighborhood militias and the general population, wrongly believing themselves to be fully sanctioned by the king and the church, advertise their Catholic status with white crosses on their hats and go on a rampage against the Huguenots.

Henri of Navarre, who has brought to Paris eight hundred mounted noblemen in his train, is attacked in his bridal suite with an entourage of fofty Huguenot gentlemen, all of whom are killed.

Henri and his cousin Henri, the Prince de Condé, are dragged before the king.

Threatened with forced conversion or death, they choose the former, an act of dubious sincerity.