[774] See Froude, History of England, x. 9. etc.
[775] De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 305. Cf. Soulier, Hist. des édits de pacification, 92.
[776] De Thou, iv. 311. It was at St. Étienne in Forez, that the incident occurred.
[777] For a fuller discussion of these circumstances than the limits of this history will permit me to give, I must refer the reader to the work of Prof. Soldan, Geschichte des Protestantismus in Frankreich, ii. 385.
[778] La Noue was one of the most modest, as well as one of the most capable of generals. "I have felt myself so much the more obliged to speak of it," writes the historian De Thou respecting the battle of Sainte Gemme, "as La Noue, the most generous of men, who has written on the civil wars with as much fidelity as judgment, always disposed to render conspicuous the merit of others, and very reserved respecting his own, has not said a word of this victory." De Thou, iv. (liv. xlvii.) 320.
[779] Brantôme has written the eulogy of this personage, whose true name was Antoine Escalin. He was first ambassador at Constantinople, where his good services secured his appointment as general of the galleys. After undergoing the displeasure of the king, and a three years' imprisonment for his participation in the massacre of the Vaudois, he was reinstated in office. Subsequently he was temporarily displaced by the grand prior, and by the Marquis of Elbeuf. It is an odd mistake of Mr. Henry White (Mass. of St. Bartholomew, p. 14, note) when he says: "In the religious wars he sided with the Huguenots." Brantôme says: "Il haïssoit mortellement ces gens-là."
[780] De Thou, iv. 316-325; Agrippa d'Aubigné, i. 325-335.
[781] Ibid., ubi supra.
[782] La Mothe Fénélon, iii. 210, 215. Despatch of June 21st.
[783] De Thou, iv. 287, 288; Kluckholn, Briefe Friedrich des Frommen, ii. 398.