History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 11

[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_.

[221] "Black devils," Guise calls them in a letter of Jan. 17th. "M. de Chatillon et ces diables noirs sont a Jerjuau." Mem. de Guise, 502.

[222] Coligny had notified the English court of his intention early in January, and Cecil entertained high hopes of the result: "A gentleman is arryved at Rye, sent from the Admyrall Chastillion, who a.s.sureth his purpose to prosecute the cause of G.o.d and of his contrey, and meaneth to joyne with our power in Normandy, which I trust shall make a spedy end of the whole." Letter to Sir T. Smith, January 14th, Wright, Q. Eliz., i.

121.

[223] How important a matter this was, may be inferred from the fact that the Admiral took pains to dwell upon it, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth, written two or three days before his departure: "Advisant au reste vostre Majeste, Madame, que j'ay faict condescendre les reistres a laisser tous leur bagages et empechemens en ceste ville (_chose non auparavant ouye_): de sorte que dedans le dix ou douziesme de ce moys de Febvrier prochain au plus tard, avec l'aide de Dieu, nous serons bien prez du Havre de Grace,"

etc. Letter from Orleans, Jan. 29, 1563, Forbes, ii. 319.

[224] "En cest equipage, nous faisions telle diligence, que souvent nous prevenions la renommee de nous mesmes en plusieurs lieux ou nous arrivions." Mem. de la Noue, c. xi. La Noue states the force at two thousand reiters, five hundred French horse, and one thousand mounted arquebusiers.

[225] "The 8th of that moneth" (February), says Stow, "the said Admirall came before Hunflew with six thousand hors.e.m.e.n, reisters and others of his owne retinues, beside footmen, and one hundred hors.e.m.e.n of the countries thereabout, and about sixe of the clocke at night, there was a great peale of ordinance shot off at Newhaven (Havre) for a welcome to the sayd Admirall." Annals (London, 1631), 653. The pa.s.sage is inaccurately quoted by Wright, Queen Eliz., i. 125, note.

[226] Hist. des egl. ref., ii. 156, 157; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c.

vii. and viii.

[227] Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iv., c. ix.

[228] OEuvres (Ed. Feugere), ii. 254; and again, ii. 257.

[229] Davila, bk. iii., p. 85.

[230] Castelnau (liv. iv., c. ix.), who was present, gives a less graphic account than Davila (bk. iii., pp. 85, 86), who was not. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 159-161; La Noue, c. xi. 607-609.

[231] Feb. 9th--the day before Sir Thomas Smith reached Blois. Letter to Privy Council, Feb. 17, 1563, State Paper Office; Hist. eccles. des egl.

ref., ii. 160.

[232] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 162.

[233] Sir Thomas Smith to the Privy Council, Feb. 15th and 17th, 1563, State Paper Office, Calendar, pp. 138, 141. It is now known, of course, that _bombs_ had been occasionally used long before 1563, by the Arabs in Spain, and others. But this kind of missile was practically a novelty, and was not adopted in ordinary warfare till near a century later.

[234] It was at a most trying moment--when M. de Soubise, the Protestant governor, found that only two weeks' provisions remained in the city, and therefore felt compelled to issue an order to force some 7,000 non-combatants--women, children, and the poor--to leave Lyons, that Viret, the Huguenot pastor, had an opportunity to display the great ascendancy which his eminent piety and discretion had secured him over all ranks in society. According to the newly published Memoirs of Soubise, Viret boldly remonstrated against an act which was equivalent to a surrender of thousands of defenceless persons to certain butchery, and declared that the ordinary rules of military necessity did not apply to a war like this, "in which the poorest has an interest, since we are fighting for the liberty of our consciences," adding his own a.s.surance that help would come from some other quarter. Finally the governor yielded, saying: "Even should it turn out ill and my reputation suffer, as though I had not done my duty as a captain, yet, at your word, I will do as you ask, being well a.s.sured that G.o.d will bless my act." Bulletin, xxiii. (1874), 497. It will be remembered that Pierre Viret had been the able coadjutor of Farel in the reformation of Geneva, twenty-eight years before. The siege of Lyons was made the subject of a lengthy song by Antoine Du Plain (reprinted in the Chansonnier Huguenot, 220 seq.), containing not a few historical data of importance.

[235] "Nous venons maintenans d'estre advertyz de Lion par M. de Soubize, comme le Baron des Adrez, ayant este practique par M. de Nemours, avoit complote de faire entrer quelque gendarmerie et gens de pied de M. de Nemours dedans Rommans, ville du Daulphine: dont il a este empesche par le sieur de Mouvans, et par la n.o.blesse du pays; qui se sont saisiz de sa personne, et le ont mene prisonnier a Valence, pour le envoyer en Languedoc devers mon frere, nagueres cardinal de Chastillon, et Monsieur de Crussol (qui ont presque delivre tout le dict pays de Languedoc de la tyrannie des ennemys de Dieu et du Roy) a fin de le faire punir, et servir d'exemple aux autres deserteurs de Dieu, de leur debvoir, et de la patrie." Admiral Coligny to Queen Elizabeth, Orleans, January 29, 1562/3, Forbes, ii. 320.

[236] The gloomy picture is painted by Henri Martin, x. 158, etc.

[237] This statement does not rest upon any doc.u.mentary proof that I am aware of. It is, however, vouched for by the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 162. Moreover, Admiral Coligny, in his later defence, expressly states, "on the testimony of men worthy of belief," that Guise "was accustomed to boast that, on the capture of the city, he would spare none of the inhabitants, and that no respect would be paid to age or s.e.x." Jean de Serres, iii. 29; Mem. de Conde, iv. 348.

[238] Mem. de Soubise, Bulletin, xxiii. (1874) 499.

[239] Not without some hesitation, however. So little confidence in his good judgment did his frivolous appearance inspire, that Coligny observed: "I would not trust him, without knowing him better than I do, had not Monsieur de Soubise sent him to me." Mem. de Soubise, Bulletin, xxiii.

(1874) 502.

[240] The Proces verbal of Poltrot's examination just before his death, March 18th, is inserted in the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 187-198.

In this he declares that his first testimony was _false_ and extorted by the fear of death, and exculpates Soubise, Beza, Coligny, etc., from having instigated him. He says that when put to torture he will say anything the questioners want him to. Accordingly, when so tortured, he accuses them, and when released a moment after the horses have begun to rend him in pieces, he conjures up a plot of the Huguenots to sack Paris, etc. May it not properly be asked, what such testimony as this is worth?

For or against Coligny, volumes of it would not affect his character in our estimation.

[241] The direct testimony of Jacques Auguste de Thou, on a matter with which he was evidently intimately acquainted through his father, is unimpeachable, and will outweigh with every unprejudiced mind all the stories of Davila, Castelnau, etc., founded on mere report. De Thou, Histoire univ. (liv. x.x.xiv.), iii. 403.