[657] The author of the Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686) gives more than one instance of a deference on the part of the subject of his biography which may seem to the reader excessive, but which alone could satisfy the chivalrous feeling of the loyal knight of the sixteenth century.
[658] Brantôme (Hommes illustres, Œuvres, viii. 163, 164) relates that Honorat de Savoie, Count of Villars, begged the Duke of Anjou to have Stuart given over to him, and, having gained his request, murdered him.
[659] "Qui par artifices merveilleusement subtils ont bien sceu vandre le sang de la maison de France contre soy-mesmes."
[660] The Earl of Leicester wrote to Randolph: "Robert Stuart, Chastellier, and certaine other worthy gentlemen, to the number of six, were lykewise taken and slayne, as the Frenche tearme it, de sang froid." Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 314. See also Cardinal Châtillon's letter to the Elector Palatine, June 10, 1569, in which the writer declares significantly of Condé's murder by Montesquiou, "ce qu'il n'eust osé entreprendre sans en avoir commandement des plus grands." Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 336.
[661] Letter of Henry of Navarre to the Duke of Anjou, "escript au Camp d'Availle le xiie jour de juillet 1569." Lettres inédites de Henry IV. recueillies par le Prince Augustin Galitzin (Paris. 1860), 4-11.
[662] The Huguenot loss is given by Jean de Serres (iii. 316) at 200 killed and 40 taken prisoners. Agrippa d'Aubigné states it at 140 gentilhommes (Hist. univ., i. 280). The Earl of Leicester's words are: "In which conflicte was slayne on both sydes, as we heare, not above foure hundred men" (Wright, Queen Elizabeth, i. 313, 314). Castelnau speaks of over a hundred Huguenot gentlemen slain and an equal number taken prisoners (liv. vii., c. 4). The "Adviz donné par Mr Norrys, ambassadeur pour la royne d'Angleterre, prins de ses lettres, envoyées de Metz, le 18 d'Avril" (La Mothe Fénélon, i. 362), agrees with Leicester, but is unique in making Anjou's loss greater than that of the Huguenots. De Thou makes the Protestants lose 400. The untruthful Davila says, "the Huguenots lost not above seven hundred men, but they were most of them gentlemen and cavaliers of note."
[663] Agrippa d'Aubigné, i. 281. La Fosse and others have preserved one of the good Catholic stanzas composed on this occasion:
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L'an mil cinq cent soixante et neuf Entre Congnac et Châteauneuf Fust apporté sur une ânesse Le grand ennemi de la messe. (Journal d'un curé ligueur, 104.) |
[664] "On donna l'honneur de cette défaicte à M. de Tavannes." La Fosse, 104.
[665] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlv.) 177. Claude de Sainctes, afterward Bishop of Evreux, who, it will be remembered, figured at the colloquy of Poissy, is credited with the suggestion of the chapel.