[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 ecclés., 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 Condé 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 horsemen; or, according to the Histoire ecclés. (ii. 146), only twenty-seven.
[214] For details of the battle of Dreux, see Hist. ecclés., ii. 140-148; Mém. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. v.; De Thou, iii. 365, etc.; Pasquier, Lettres (Ed. Feugère), ii. 251-254; Guise's relation, reprinted in Mém. de Condé, 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. xxxvi.; Davila, 81, seq. Cf. letter of Catharine, ubi infra, and two plans of the engagement, in vol. v. of Mém. de Condé. The Duc d'Aumale gives a good military sketch, i. 189-205.
[215] "Et non sans cause," says Abbé Bruslart; "d'autant que de ceste bataille despendoit tout l'estat de la religion chrestienne et du royaume." Mém. de Condé, 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 près de 24 heures en une extrême ennuy et fascherie, et jusques à 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 Mém. 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 ambassador in Germany, apud Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mém. 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 André, 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. Brantôme and Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mém. de Castelnau, ii. 81. The marshal had been shot by a victim whom he had deprived of his possessions by confiscation. Ibid., ubi supra.