About thirty or forty yards farther, a ball struck my cuirass, but glanced off without entering, and a second passed through the crest of my casque. Two or three went through the cassock I wore above my arms, and one ball just grazed the lower part of my bridle-hand sufficiently to deluge my glove in blood. It then struck the pommel of the saddle and bounded off. I was now within twenty yards of the end of the line; but, ere I reached it, another of my men was knocked off his horse; and if the arquebusiers had been wise enough to fire at the chargers instead of the riders, not one of us would have escaped to bear the admiral's message to the Prince de Condé. The last shot that was received was in my left shoulder; but it was of no importance, and did not even disable my arm.
I now continued my course in safety, but without relaxing my speed, and opened the visor of my casque both to get some air and to see more distinctly whether we were followed. Such was not the case, however; and at the top of the hill I saw the squadrons of the admiral, and could perceive the group in which he stood watching my course, perhaps with some anxiety. At the distance of about two miles I heard the sound of some trumpets behind a little wood in advance, and going on at the same quick pace, I came, in a moment after, upon some thirty or forty horsemen, covered with white cassocks, and bearing the cornet of the Prince de Soubise.
"Where is the Prince de Condé?" I demanded "Where is the prince? I bear him a message from the admiral."
"He is coming up that narrow road," replied one of the gentlemen. "Having heard firing, we supposed that some affair was taking place, and are now marching up towards Triac."
"The whole van are engaged," I replied; and, without more words, rode on and met the prince at the head of three or four hundred horse, almost all gentlemen of high quality, and distinguished in arms. The prince was speaking gayly; and, the moment he saw me, he exclaimed, "Ah, De Cerons! what news do you bear? So the enemy has crossed the river, we hear. But, good heavens, your surcoat is pierced in twenty places, and you are bleeding from the hand and shoulder."
"That is nothing, my lord," I replied. "The enemy have passed the river, the vanguard has been engaged these two hours, and the admiral has sent me to say to your highness that a general battle is inevitable, and to beg you to charge in order to disentangle the advance."
"Instantly," replied the prince, his bright eye flashing with a light which I never saw anywhere but in them. "Martinet, you ride back instantly, and hurry the advance of the main battle. Chouppes, ride on with Languilliers to Soubise, and you three, with your men, gallop as fast as you can towards Triac, to clear the ground a little while we come up. De Cerons, you stay with me, as you have seen all that is passing, and can guide us well. Now on, my men!" And, putting the whole troop into a quicker pace, he led the way, till we came out half way down the hill up which the Royalist army had been advancing when I left the field.
The aspect of everything, however, was now very much changed; the admiral had retreated beyond Triac; Brissac occupied the village; Martigue had taken ground to the right thereof; the Duke of Montpensier was at the top of the rise, and the main body of the Catholics, under the Duke of Anjou, occupied the rest of the ground towards Chateauneuf.
The gallant Puyviault, however, and his men, stretching out and menacing the flank of Martigue's troops, afforded us the means of joining our line to that of the admiral; and had the whole of the Prince de Condé's division been upon the field, we might still, perhaps, have gained the day. Such not being the case, and, by one accident or another, the prince having received but tardy information of what was taking place, the situation of the admiral seemed to all of us who were on the lower ground more perilous than it really was.
Condé halted for a moment, as if to consider and to communicate with the admiral; and, had it not been for the arrival at that instant of a small body of German Protestants who were with the army, in all probability such counsels would have been held as would have prevented the fatal results of that day's field. Condé, however, saw our auxiliaries arrive with joy and satisfaction; not that he hoped to save the battle by the rash, and desperate conduct he was prepared to pursue, but he thought that, at all events, he should be enabled to disentangle the troops of the admiral by a strong diversion in his favour; and, the moment that the arrival of the Germans was known, I heard him call loudly for his casque.