Volume II Part 57 (2/2)
And now the siege, which the court had long hesitated to undertake, began in earnest. On the fourth of December, Marshal Biron approached La Roch.e.l.le with seven ensigns of horse and eighteen companies of foot, and two larger cannon.[1273] Meantime the most strenuous efforts were put forth to collect an adequate besieging force. When milder measures failed to secure prompt obedience, recourse was had to threats, and the n.o.bles were summoned on pain, in case of disobedience, of losing their privileges, and being reduced to the rank of ”roturiers.” The menace had its effect, and in the month of January, 1573, the force under Biron had swollen to sixty companies of foot, with not less than thirty-seven large cannon--a considerable provision of artillery for that period.[1274]
[Sidenote: Description of La Roch.e.l.le.]
The city of La Roch.e.l.le occupies the head of a deep bay, stretching in a north-easterly direction from the ocean, and serving at present as the large and convenient harbor for its extensive commerce. The old town, whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, covered only a small part of the area since inclosed by walls. A narrow peninsula, protected on the one side by a sheet of water and on the other by marshes, offered a tempting site, and was first occupied. The larger inlet on the west was the old, and probably for a long time the only haven; but long before the middle of the sixteenth century the action of the tide, which washes in great quant.i.ties of sand, combining with the gradual deposit of alluvium made by the neighboring springs, had converted this inlet into a marsh--”les Marais Salans”--intersected by ditches and used only in the manufacture of salt. The marsh itself has since been entirely reclaimed.
The ”new” harbor, as the smaller inlet was still called, at the period of which I am speaking, was of much inferior capacity, and was included within the circuit of the walls.[1275] A chain, extended between the two towers guarding its narrow entrance, effectually precluded the pa.s.sage of hostile vessels.
For considerably more than one-half of their circuit, the walls of La Roch.e.l.le were inaccessible to the land forces; and the deep foss skirting them was full of water, except on the north and north-east. The fortifications, everywhere formidable, had, therefore, been constructed with extraordinary care in these directions; for it was here that the brunt of the attack must be borne. With Puritan simplicity and faith, the reformed inhabitants of La Roch.e.l.le had named the strong work at the northwestern angle of the circuit the ”Bastion de l'evangile,” or the ”Bastion of the Gospel.” It was appropriately supported on the right by the ”Cavalier de l'epitre.” Other forts, such as that of Cognes at the north-eastern angle, were but little inferior in importance; it was evident, however, that upon the ability of the Roch.e.l.lois to defend the Bastion de l'evangile must depend the salvation of the city.[1276]
[Sidenote: Resoluteness of the Roch.e.l.lois.]
But the chief strength of the city was to be found in the manly resolution of the inhabitants to secure for themselves and their children the right to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d according to the purer faith, or perish in the attempt. An incident occurring about this time served to ill.u.s.trate and to confirm their courage. A short distance in advance of the Bastion de l'evangile there stood a solitary windmill, which, on account of its advantageous position, the Roch.e.l.lois were anxious to retain. The captain to whose guard it was intrusted, recognizing the ease with which he might be surprised and cut off, took the precaution to draw off at dusk the small detachment which he had placed there by day, leaving but a single soldier to act as sentry. Meantime, Strozzi had determined to capture the mill.
This he attempted to do, taking advantage of a moonlight night. To the two culverines brought to play upon him, the solitary defender could answer only with his arquebuse; but so briskly did he fire, and so well did he counterfeit the voices of others, that the a.s.sailants believed an entire company to be present. At last, when he no longer could hold out, the soldier only surrendered after stipulating for the life of himself and his entire band. Notwithstanding his promise, Strozzi, when once his astonishment at the appearance of the single actor who had played so many parts had given place to anger at the deceit practised upon him, was in favor of hanging the Huguenot for his audacity. But Biron would only consent to have him sent to the galleys, a punishment which he escaped by finding means to slip away from the hands of the royalists.[1277]
[Sidenote: Their military strength.]
The entire military force of the besieged comprised about thirteen hundred regular troops, besides two thousand citizens, well armed and drilled, and under competent captains. There was an abundance of powder, of wine, biscuit, and other provisions, although of wheat there was but little.[1278] Meantime a.s.sistance was anxiously expected from England, and the courage of the common people, incited by the exhortations of the ministers, did not flag, notwithstanding the feebler spirit of the rich and the actual desertion of a few leaders.[1279]
The besiegers were not idle. Besides occupying positions north, east, and south of the city, which effectually cut off communication from the land side, they built forts on opposite sides of the outer harbor, and stranded at the entrance a large carack, which was made firm in its position with stones and sand. The work, when provided with guns and troops, commanded the pa.s.sage, and was christened ”le Fort de l'Aiguille.” In vain did the Roch.e.l.lois attempt to destroy or capture it; the carack, while it proved unavailing to prevent the entrance of an occasional vessel laden with grain or ammunition, remained the most formidable point in the possession of the enemy.
[Sidenote: Henry, Duke of Anjou, appointed to conduct the siege.]
In order to give her favorite son a new opportunity to acquire military distinction, the queen mother now persuaded Charles to permit the Duke of Anjou to conduct the siege. He arrived before La Roch.e.l.le about the middle of February,[1280] with a brilliant train of princes and n.o.bles, among whom were Alencon, Guise, Aumale, and Montluc, besides Henry of Navarre and his cousin Conde, who, as they had to sustain the role of good Roman Catholics, could scarcely avoid taking part in the campaign against their former brethren. In the ordinances soon after published by Anjou, he seems to have hoped to weaken the Huguenots by copying their own strictness of moral discipline. The very Catholic practice of profane swearing, in which his Majesty was so proficient, was prohibited on pain of severe punishment; and it was prescribed that a sermon should daily be preached in the camp.[1281] A good round oath none the less continued to be received by the soldiers, in all doubtful cases, as a sufficient proof of loyalty to Mother Church, nor did they cease because of the ordinance from ridiculing the idea that such good Christians as they needed preaching, which was well enough for unevangelized pagans.[1282]
[Sidenote: The besieged pray and fight.]
In view of the impending peril, the Protestants had recourse, as their custom was, to prayer and fasting. The sixteenth and eighteenth of February were days of public humiliation. From their knees the Huguenots went with redoubled courage to the ramparts. The crisis had at length arrived. A series of furious a.s.saults were given, directed princ.i.p.ally against the northern wall and the Bastion de l'evangile. It was in one of these attacks, on the third of March, that the Duke of Aumale was killed.
By the besieged the death of so eminent a member of the house of Lorraine was interpreted as a signal judgment of G.o.d upon the most cruel member of a persecuting family--another presage that the sword should never depart from the princely stock which had begun the war, until it should be altogether destroyed. The royalists, on the other hand, found in it a great source of regret; while Catharine, terrified at the danger to which her son might be exposed, wrote one of her ill-spelt letters to Montpensier, entreating him and the other veterans not to suffer any of the princes to go imprudently near the walls.[1283]
[Sidenote: Bravery of the women.]
It does not enter into the plan of this history to detail the progress of the siege. Let it suffice to say that the enemy was met at every point and repulsed. Not content with simply defending their walls, the Huguenots made sorties, in which many of Anjou's followers were slain. Sometimes dressing in the uniform of those they had killed or taken prisoners, they returned and penetrated into the hostile camp, learned the plans of the a.s.sailants, and cut off more than one man of note. The presence of women among them became an element of strength; for these, surmounting the weakness of their s.e.x, did good service in the mines, or, donning armor, defended the breach and drove the enemy into the ditch.[1284] It was remarked that, as the supply of fresh provisions diminished, the lack was in some degree compensated by such an abundance of c.o.c.kles on the sands as had never before been known. If the Protestants regarded this incident as a providential interposition in their behalf,[1285] the Roman Catholics sought to account for it by supposing that the operations of the siege had permitted the fish to multiply undisturbed.[1286] However this might be, the women of La Roch.e.l.le sallied forth to husband this new resource; but their imprudence in straying beyond the range of the guns was rewarded with insolent outrage on the part of such of the enemy as were in the vicinity. Even this circ.u.mstance the Huguenots knew how to turn to advantage. Disguising themselves in feminine attire, a troop of Huguenot soldiers, a day or two later, issued from the city when the tide was out, apparently bent on the same errand. It was not long before the royalists undertook to repeat a diversion which seemed to offer little danger to them. Scarcely, however, had they approached when the clumsy costume was hastily thrown aside, and the a.s.sailants discovered too late the trap into which they had fallen. Many a hot-headed soldier of Anjou atoned for his temerity with his life.[1287]
[Sidenote: La Noue retires. Failure of diplomacy.]
The ordinary wiles of Catharine were not left untried; but she effected little or nothing by negotiation. The people were not so easily cajoled and duped as their leaders had often been, and would accept no terms except such as the court utterly refused to offer--the restoration of the privileges conferred by the edict, its confirmation by oath, and the interchange of hostages, to be kept in some neutral state in Germany, with entire liberty of wors.h.i.+p and exemption from royal garrison in and around La Roch.e.l.le, Montauban, Nismes, and Sancerre.[1288] Even Francois de la Noue became impatient at the excessive caution which the Huguenots seemed to him to display, and, redeeming the promise he had given the king before he took command, retired from the city (on the eleventh of March) when all hope of reconciliation had apparently disappeared. With wonderful prudence he had managed to forfeit the confidence of neither party. Yet on some occasions, it must be admitted, his self-control was sorely tried. For example, at one time a minister--not long after deposed from the sacred office--so far forgot himself in the heat of angry discussion as to give La Noue a sound box upon the ear. Even then the great captain refused to order the offender's punishment, and confined himself to sending him, under guard, to his wife, with directions to keep him carefully until he should recover his reason.[1289]
[Sidenote: English aid miscarries.]
The a.s.sistance which La Roch.e.l.le had counted upon receiving from England never came. Count Montgomery was a skilful negotiator. If he was unable to prevail upon Elizabeth to give open countenance to the Huguenots, on account of the league recently entered into, which Retz had been specially sent by Charles to confirm, he at least succeeded in obtaining a sum of forty thousand francs from various English, French, and Flemish sympathizers, with which he was permitted, notwithstanding protests from Paris, to fit out a fleet. Elizabeth, indeed, so far overcame her scruples as to allow a large vessel of her own to follow. But when Montgomery's squadron reached the roads of La Roch.e.l.le, the fifty-three s.h.i.+ps of which it was composed, and which carried eighteen hundred or two thousand men, were so small and badly-appointed--in short, so inferior in strength to the fewer vessels of the king standing off the entrance--that they avoided coming to close quarters, stood off to Belle Isle, and finally returned to England. Queen Elizabeth, at all times very doubtful respecting the propriety of a.s.sisting subjects against their monarch, had meantime disowned the enterprise as piratical, and expressed the hope the culprits might be destroyed. It was not, in this case, merely her customary dissimulation. The plundering by some French and Netherland sailors of the vessel on which the Earl of Worcester was proceeding, in the queen's name, to stand as sponsor at the baptism of Charles's infant daughter, had greatly incensed her.[1290] Not, however, that Elizabeth lost any of that remarkable interest which she had always taken in Count Montgomery, or felt at all inclined to give him up to the French government for his breach of the peace. For when, a little later, a demand was made for the culprit, she a.s.sured the amba.s.sador of Charles that she could swear she was ignorant that the count was in her dominions. ”But,” she added, ”were he to come, I would answer your master as his father answered my sister, Queen Mary, when he said, 'I will not consent to be the hangman of the Queen of England.' So his Majesty, the King of France, must excuse me if I can no more act as executioner of those of my religion than King Henry would discharge a similar office in the case of those that were not of his religion.”[1291]
[Sidenote: Huguenot successes in the south.]
[Sidenote: Sommieres.]
[Sidenote: Villeneuve.]
In other parts of France it had fared no better with the attempt to crush the Huguenots. Montauban and Nismes still held out. Various places in the south-east fell into Huguenot hands. The siege of Sommieres, near Nismes, by the Roman Catholics, was so obstinate, and the garrison capitulated on such favorable terms, that the Protestants were rather elated than discouraged. Marshal Damville had a.s.sailed it only in order to save his credit, and the little town detained him nearly two months,--from the eleventh of February to the ninth of April. Every device was employed to r.e.t.a.r.d his success. Streams of boiling oil were poured upon the heads of the a.s.sailants, and red-hot hoops of iron were dexterously tossed over their shoulders. In the end the garrison marched out with all the honors of war.[1292] The Huguenots surprised Villeneuve, near the Rhone, by effecting an entrance, much as they had entered Nismes in 1569, through the grated opening by which the waters of a sewer issued from the walls.[1293]
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