Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 1.djvu/252

 168 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS verses, I will be ready to set forward, and perish with you ana our mutual friends." " The eight days are already expired ! " she cried. " Go, sir, where your duty calls you. Heaven will not give the victory to our enemies. In the name of God, I call upon you to resist no longer, but to save our brethren, or die in the attempt." On the next morning Coligni was on horseback, with all his retainers round him ; and with a heavy heart but a clear conscience, he rode on his way to join Conde" at Meaux, which was now, in the early spring of 1562, the head-quarters of the insurgent Huguenots. The high rank of the Prince of Conde, as well as his brilliant abilities and chivalrous courage, caused him to be acknowledged as chief of the Protestant party ; but Coligni was looked on by friends and foes as the main pillar of their cause ; and it was he that gave organization to the volunteers who flocked around himself and the prince, first at Meaux, and afterward in greater numbers at Orleans, when toward the end of March they succeeded in occupying that im- portant city, and making it a centre of operations for the Huguenot confederacy. Like Cromwell in after times, Coligni relied on the religious enthusiasm as well as the natural bravery of his troops. He exercised them by preaching and prayer as well as by drilling and manoeuvring. He inspired them with his own spirit of austere devotion to their cause ; and the Huguenot army was in its first cam- paigns as conspicuous for good order and morality as for valor ; though by de grees it became tainted with a tendency to marauding and to brutal violence. The Roman Catholic party now sought support from Philip II. of Spain, from the Duke of Savoy, the emperor and other foreign princes of their creed , and the Huguenots, to the deep regret of Coligni, were compelled to strengthen themselves by similar negotiations. The English queen, Elizabeth, promised succors in men and money, on condition of Havre (which city, l.'ke most of the other strong places in Normandy, was devoted to the Protestant cause) being placed in her power as a security for repayment. The German Lutheran princes permitted a large auxiliary force of lansquenets and heavy-armed cavalry to be raised among their subjects in behalf of the French Protestants ; and Dandelot was despatched into Germany to place himself at their head, and lead them across the Rhine ; a difficult operation, which he accomplished with great skill, and joined his brothers and Cond at Pluviers, near Orleans, late in the year, and at a crisis when the fortunes of the Protestant party appeared reduced to a very low ebb, as in the interval which had elapsed since the commencement of the war, though there had been no engagement between the main armies, the Royalists had gained numerous advantages, and had captured many towns, both in the South and in Normandy, which had originally declared for the insurgents. Coligni and Conde' with their own troops and their German allies now (De- cember, 1 562) marched upon Paris ; but finding it hopeless to attempt the storm or siege of the capital, they led their army toward Normandy, desiring to form a junction with the English troops at Havre. The Royal forces, commanded