Volume II Part 11 (1/2)

[199] See Motley, United Netherlands, iii. 59.

[200] ”The Prince of Conde and his campe having approched the towne of Corbeille, and being ready to batter the same, the queene mother sente her princ.i.p.al escuyer, named Monsieur de Sainte-Mesme, with a lettre to the sayd prince, advertisinge him of the deathe of the kinge, his brother. The sayd de Sainte-Mesme had also in credence to tell the prince from the queene, that she was verey desirous to have an ende of theise troubles: and also that she was willinge that the sayd prince should enjoy his ranke and aucthorite due unto him in this realme.... This the queene mother's lettre and sweete words hathe empeached the battrye and warlyke procedings against Corbeill; the prince therby beeing induced to desist from using any violence against his ennemyes. I feare me, that this delaying will torne much to the prince's disadvantage; and that there is no other good meaning at this time in this faire speeche, then there was in the treaty of Bogeancy (Beaugency) in the monethe of July last.” Throkmorton to the queen, from Essonne, opposite Corbeil, Nov. 22, 1562, Forbes, ii. 209.

[201] Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec. 14th, Baum, ii., App., 197.

[202] Ib., _ubi supra_.

[203] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 120; De Thou, iii. 359.

[204] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 132; De Thou, iii. 361; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. iv.; Forbes, ii. 227, 228. Even in September, the English amba.s.sador wrote from Orleans, ”there is greate practise made by the queene mother and others to winne Monsieur de Janlis and Monsieur de Grandmont from the prince.” Forbes, ii. 41.

[205] ”Par ce moyen, un chacun de nous trainera son licol, jusques a ce que les dessusdits le serrent a leur appet.i.t.” Hist. eccles. des egl.

ref., ii. 126. The details of the conferences, with the articles offered on either side, are given at great length, pp. 121-136.

[206] ”The queene mother and hyr councelours,” wrote Throkmorton to Elizabeth, four or five days later (Dec. 13, 1562), ”have at the length once agayne showed, howe sincerely they meane in their treatyes. For when their force out of Gascoigne together with two thousand five hundred Spainardes were arrived, and when they had well trenched and fortefyed the faulxbourges and places of advantage of Paris; espienge, that the prince coulde remayne no longer with his campe before Paris for lack of victuaill and fourrage, having abused him sufficiently with this treaty eight or ten dayes: the sayd queene mother ... refused utterly the condicions before accorded.” Forbes, State Papers, ii. 226. It is not strange that the amba.s.sador, after the meagre results of the past five weeks, ”could not hope of any great good to be done, until he saw it;” although he was confident that ”if matters were handled stoutly and roundly, without delay,” the prince might constrain his enemies to accord him favorable conditions.

[207] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. iv.

[208] Five thousand, according to the Duke d'Aumale (Les Princes de Conde, i. 190).

[209] ”Quatre-vingtz salades ... lesquels sembloient estre _quatre-vingtz saettes_ du ciel!” Explanation of plan of battle sent by Guise to the king, reprinted in Mem. de Conde, iv. 687.

[210] ”Etant chose certaine qu'il n'entra de cinquante ans en France des plus couards hommes que ceux-la, bien qu'ils eussent la plus belle apparence du monde.” Hist. eccles. ii. 144.

[211] It ought perhaps, in justice to the reiters, to be noticed that Coligny attributes their failure not to cowardice, as in the case of both the French and the German infantry, but to their not understanding orders, and to the occasional absence of an interpreter.

[212] La Noue in his commentaries (Ed. Mich., c. x., p. 605 seq.) makes some interesting observations on the singular incidents of the battle of Dreux. The author of the Histoire eccles., ii. 140, and De Thou, iii. 367, criticise both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant generals. They find the former to blame for not waiting to engage the Huguenots until they had reached the rougher country they were approaching, where the superiority of Conde in cavalry would have been of little avail. They censure the latter for leaving his own infantry unprotected, and for attacking the enemy's infantry instead of his cavalry. If this had been routed, the other would have made no further resistance.

[213] He had, according to Beza's letter to Calvin, Dec. 27th (Baum, ii.

Appendix, 202), lost only one hundred and fifty of his hors.e.m.e.n; or, according to the Histoire eccles. (ii. 146), only twenty-seven.

[214] For details of the battle of Dreux, see Hist. eccles., ii. 140-148; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. v.; De Thou, iii. 365, etc.; Pasquier, Lettres (Ed. Feugere), ii. 251-254; Guise's relation, reprinted in Mem. de Conde, iv. 685, etc., and letters subsequently written, ibid. iv. 182, etc.; Coligny's brief account, written just after the battle, ibid. iv.

178-181; the Swiss accounts, Baum, ii. Appendix, 198-202; Vieilleville, liv. viii., c. x.x.xvi.; Davila, 81, seq. Cf. letter of Catharine, _ubi infra_, and two plans of the engagement, in vol. v. of Mem. de Conde. The Duc d'Aumale gives a good military sketch, i. 189-205.

[215] ”Et non sans cause,” says Abbe Bruslart; ”d'autant que de ceste bataille despendoit tout l'estat de la religion chrestienne et du royaume.” Mem. de Conde, i. 105. A despatch of Smith to the Privy Council, St. Denis, Dec. 20, 1562, gives this first and incorrect account. MS.

State Paper Office.

[216] H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 156. Le Laboureur, ii. 450.

Catharine's own account to her minister at Vienna, it is true, is very different. ”J'en demeuray pres de 24 heures _en une extreme ennuy et fascherie_, et jusques a ce que le S. de Losses arriva par-devers moy, qui fut hier sur les neuf heures du matin.” Letter to the Bishop of Rennes, Dec. 23, 1562, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 66-68.

[217] The Council of Trent, on receiving an account of the battle, Dec.

28th, offered solemn thanksgivings. Acta Concil. Trid. _apud_ Martene et Durand, Ampl. Coll., t. viii. 1301, 1302; Letter of the Card. of Lorraine to the Bishop of Rennes, French amba.s.sador in Germany, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 70.

[218] Sir Thomas Smith to Cecil, February 4, 1563, State Paper Office.

[219] Same to same, February 26, 1563, State Paper Office.

[220] For Marshal Saint Andre, who had once gravely suggested in the council the propriety of sewing the queen mother up in a bag and throwing her into the river, it is understood that the Medici shed few tears.

Brantome and Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 81. The marshal had been shot by a victim whom he had deprived of his possessions by confiscation. Ibid., _ubi supra_.