This was a sufficiently plain hint, which Mondoucet could not well
misunderstand. "Observe the Duke's countenance carefully when you
give him this message," added the King, "and let me know his reply."
In order, however, that there might be no mistake about the matter,
Charles wrote again to his ambassador, five days afterwards, distinctly
stating the regret which he should feel if Alva should not take the city
of Mons, or if he should take it by composition. "Tell the Duke," said
he, "that it is most important for the service of his master and of God
that those Frenchmen and others in Mons should be cut in pieces." He
wrote another letter upon the name day, such was his anxiety upon the
subject, instructing the envoy to urge upon Alva the necessity of
chastising those rebels to the French crown. "If he tells you,"
continued Charles, "that this is tacitly requiring him to put to death
all the French prisoners now in hand as well to cut in pieces every man
in Mons, you will say to him that this is exactly what he ought to do,
and that he will be guilty of a great wrong to Christianity if he does
otherwise." Certainly, the Duke, having been thus distinctly ordered,
both by his own master and by his Christian Majesty, to put every
one of these Frenchmen to death, had a sufficiency of royal warrant.
Nevertheless, he was not able to execute entirely these ferocious
instructions. The prisoners already in his power were not destined to
escape, but the city of Mons, in his own language, "proved to have
sharper teeth than he supposed."

Mondoucet lost no time in placing before Alva the urgent necessity of
accomplishing the extensive and cold-blooded massacre thus proposed.
"The Duke has replied," wrote the envoy to his sovereign, "that he is
executing his prisoners every day, and that he has but a few left.
Nevertheless, for some reason which he does not mention, he is reserving