[1415] Delaborde, III. 157, 161, 169, 170. Early in 1569 Montluc sent a complaint to Charles IX protesting against this export of grain. This trade redounded to the advantage of the commander of the Gascon coast, who was a brother of the bishop of Agen, and Montluc’s complaint gave rise to an acrimonious correspondence preserved in Coll. Harley St. Germain, No. 323, which throws some light on the interesting question of trade in the sixteenth century (see Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 395, note).
[1416] See Montluc’s observations in III, 368, 369. He gives a spirited account on p. 367 of an attack of the reiters on Monbrun, describing the way they fought in the close quarters of a town.
[1417] C. S. P. For., No. 543, December 19, 1569.
[1418] Ruble, Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 262.
[1419] He took it long before historians attributed the honor to him (ibid., 382).
[1420] Ibid., 366.
[1421] “Il devoit considérer l’importance de la place qui estoit sur deux rivières.”—Ibid.
[1422] Ibid., V, 266.
[1423] All this happened on the night of December 15 and 16 (Commentaires et lettres de Montluc, III, 384, 385). De Thou, V, Book XLV, 666-68, and Popelinière, Book XXII, both tell the tale. A learned dissertation in Hist. du Lang., XII, note 5, clears up a number of obscure points in these accounts.
[1424] The last of them got across by January 3, 1570 (Montluc, III, 384-91, and his letter of January 9, in V, 261-64).