the Marshal de Brissac who complained he had not Forces sufficient to keep the Field All these disappointments did not alter his Resolution of taking the Town He told Castlenau that thé business in hand was of so great importance as to deserve some time to consider of it In the mean time that he would show him his Infantry which was the finest that had been yet seen in France and having commanded him to follow him he came to it within two hundred Paces of the Suburbs of Portereau where they expected him without noise according to the Orders they had received Castlenau thinking he was carried to a Review was much amazed to see Guise light off his Horse and cause four Culverins to advance drawn by Pioneers falling Pell-mell upon the Suburbs The Culverins having over-turned the Gabions and Barrels the Enemies had covered themselves with he caused his Souldiers to march with Sword in Hand who took the Suburbs after a very obstinate Fight and taking advantage of the Enemies disorder they had like to have entered the Town with them During the heat of the Attacque Guise told Castlenau I am grieved the Marshal de Brissac is not here I believe he would take delight to see the Performances of our Foot and that he would find them much better employed in taking this Town and in freeing the Constable than in crossing the Kingdom to run after the Admiral 's Cavalry The River of Loire which runs along the Walls of Orleans separates the City from the Suburbs of Portereau and the Bridge which makes the Communication of the one with the other is guarded by the Fort of Tourelles Guise became Master of it in a few days and the Town was so prest that it was impossible for it to hold out four and twenty hours longer when there happened a Misfortune which changed the state of things There was in the Camp a Gentleman called Poltrot of a gloomy and close humour and having all the manners of Spain where he had been brought up but was resolute besides and capable of the greatest Crimes He had let himself be perswaded by Guises Enemies that he could not render a greater piece of Service to the State than by dispatching Guise out of the World This Man by much thinking of this Design which at first raised a horrour in him and overcome with the continual Instances of those who moved him to it imagined that it would be really an Heroical action and of the greatest advantage to his Country He came thereupon and offered himself to Guise as having abandoned the Reformed Religion and Guise having received him with a great deal of humanity appointed him Quarters amongst the Harbingers and caused him to eat often at his Table This Traytor having waited a pretty while for a convenient opportunity to put his design in Execution and knowing that Guise who had spent the day at Portereau in giving Orders for the general Assault was returning being attended only by a Page and Tristan Rostain who was mounted upon a Mule he hid himself behind a Nut-Tree near which Guise was to pass and having fired his Pistols at him at five or sixpaces distance he shot three Bullets into his Shoulder and gallopped away full speed on a Spanish Horse that he had bought for that purpose This accident put all the Army in a Consternation and the Queen came in all haste to the Camp seeming more grieved than perhaps she really was The Murderer spent the Night in Gallopping up and down the Wood whither he had made his escape But whether the horrour of what he had done had disturbed his mind or that Heaven would not that so great a Crime should remain unpunished it was impossible for this wretch to get from the place where he had committed it and he was taken the next day being so weary that he was not able to stir any longer The Queen caused him to be examined in her presence he declared that it was the Admiral who persuaded him to kill the Duke of Guise that at first he had found a repugnance to this action and that having been once already in the Camp upon the same design he had been touched with Repentance and returned to Orleans but that the Admiral and two Ministers of whom Beza was one had so pressed him that he was not able to resist their persuasions But they cleared themselves of this business by publick Writings and perfect Demonstrations of their being no ways concerned in this Assassinate and desired likewise that Poltrot might be kept so long till the Truth was found out And though the Admiral confessed in his Letter to the Queen that he could not be sorry for an accident that freed the Reformed Religion from its greatest Enemy he protested that he had never spoken to Poltrot and that he did not so much as know his Face In the mean time Guise finding his death approaching prepared himself for it by all the actions of Piety that can be done by a Man under those Circumstances I shall mention here some of his last Words not such as I have imagined them as most Historians do but as they have been written by the Bishop of Ries who assisted him to his last gasp and who has Collected them in a Letter he Addresses to Charles the Ninth After having told the Queen that he had no other regret in leaving the World than to leave it in a time when the King and She might have some occasion for his Service He advised her to employ all things to make Peace and that it was the only means of appeasing the troubles that set France in a Cumbustion that she knew very well that he had never given her any other Counsel and that at the very time when he thought himself sure of taking Orleans it was his Advice That new Propositions of accomodation should be made to the Hugonots and that in short all those who Counselled a War were neither good French-men nor good Servants to the King Then turning towards his Wife who was all in Tears near his Bed and having put her in mind of the Affection he had always had for her he recommended to her the Education of their mutual Children giving her an absolute Power over them and permitting her to retrench a third part of their shares who should be disobedient to her to recompence those she should be most satisfied with praying God to punish her likewise as she would merrit it in case she had not for them the Sentiments that a good Mother ought to have Farewell said he to her grasping her Hand I perceive I have but a short time to see you remember me without desiring to revenge my Death since that God Commands us to pardon our Enemies and that I do pardon him who has so grievously assassinated me Then causing the young Prince of Joinville his Eldest Son to come to him My Son said he to him you have heard what I have said
turbulent Man who made it his business to breed Quarrels and never troubled himself how to weather them Guise having sent his Army to Gesi came to Rome to pay his respects to the Pope he stayed there near a Month to wait perhaps and sollicite for the Succours that were promised him but no Body did approve of this stay And indeed though he could not have been reproached with leaving the Kings Forces useless through his negligence it was not very honourable to France to see a General that is sent to be at the head of it's Armies stay a whole Month amongst Monks and have the lowest place at a Table of Cardinals Upon which account there runs a Story of a Master of Requests of his Train who went and placed himself below him without being invited that he might prevent said he a General of the Armies of the King of France from having the lowest place at Table Some were of opinion that he stayed at Rome to secure the Pontificate to his Brother in case it should come to be vacant Whatsoever the reason was being returned to his Army he besieged Civitella and was obliged to raise the Siege after having stayed there three Weeks He was likewise vigorously repulsed at an Assault he made wherein he lost above two hundred Men. The famous Battle of Saint Quentin having brought France within an Ace of its Ruin Guise was recalled in all haste and he joyfully quitted a Country where he met with no success Never was Man received with a more general Applause The King did him the Honour to tell him that he was returned for the preservation of the Kingdom The People who usually are as easily comforted as they are afflicted forgot at the sight of him the misfortune that had occasioned his coming back and those who two days before did not think themselves secure in the midst of Paris demanded nothing more than to be led forth against the Enemy It was proposed that Guise should be made Vice-Roy but this Title being new and almost unknown in France he was nominated Lieutenant General of the Kings Armies within and without the Kingdom and the Letters were verified in all the Parliaments Though it was then the midst of Winter it was thought important for the Glory and Security of the Kingdom to make some considerable enterprize It was not thought fit to go to Saint Quentin which the Spaniards had fortified and the sight of which would only have served to abate the Courage of the Souldiers by renewing the remembrance of their defeat The resolution having thereupon been taken in the Council the Duke of Nevers with one part of the Army marched towards Campagne giving out that he was going to take Luxembourg and Arlon Guise came into Picardy under the pretext of guarding the Frontier after which he advanced as if he designed to go re-inforce the Garrisons of Ardres and of Bologne and at length the Forces of the Duke of Nemours having joyned him after great days Journeys he caused his Army to march with incredible diligence and came on the first of January before Calice where he was not expected This Town did at that time belong to the English but it was looked upon as the Spaniards because that Philip King of Spain wore then the Crown of England having married Mary the Queen at that time The place is defended on one side by the Sea and on the other by deep Marshes and by a River which almost wholly environs it Thus on the Land side you cannot approach it but by a Ditch which is guarded by the Fort of Nieulay and on the Sea side it has the Fort of Risban which absolutely Commands all the Port and which can hinder all Ships both great and small from coming in The success of this enterprize consisted in diligence Guise caused the two Forts to be Attacqued and took them both in one day after which having raised a Battery against that part of the Town which is called the Water-gate he began to Fire upon the Fortifications as if he would have made his principal Attacque on that side But the Enemies thinking they had only that part to defend were much astonished to see in an instant fifteen pieces of Canon pointed against the Castle that was only environed by a simple Wall without Ramparts The noise of the Artillery was so great that it was heard as far as Antwerp but it was not a noise to no purpose for the same Evening the Breach was great enough to amount to the Assault Guise having caused Grammont to advance with three thousand chosen Harquebusiers to hinder the Enemies from Re-trenching themselves upon the Breach he caused fifteen hundred Souldiers to pass along the Port under the Conduct of Dandelot with order to sink a Trench and afterwards a Traverse which answered to the Canal of the Ditch they broke and the Waters being emptied to the height of the Traverse Guise passed through the Water to the middle at the head of his Souldiers and notwithstanding the obstinate resistance of the Enemies he became Master of the Castle whither the English brought him the Keys of the Town the next day and received the Conditions he thought fit to impose upon them Thus was that Town taken in less than ten days which the English had held for two hundred and ten years They took it in the Reign of Philip of Valois in the year 1347. though it was not fortified at that time the Siege lasted a whole year and John of Vienna who Commanded there for the King did not deliver it up till that he saw his Souldiers half dead of Hunger and that they were no longer able to bear their Arms. But since that time the English had fortified it after such a manner as that it passed for impregnable and for this reason the French had been so long without daring to undertake to drive them from thence He afterwards took with the same Rapidity the Town of Guines and that of Hames He made himself Master of all the County of Oye and in less than a Month drove the English out of France after their having been settled there for two Ages without the French being able to force them thence The year after he besieged Thionville with the Duke of Nevers This place was taken with a great deal of pain and Guise had like to have been killed there by a Cannon Shot which took away Marshal Strozzy upon whose Shoulder he was leaning But while that his Army after the taking of Thionville spent their time in seeing the little City of Arlon on Fire which the Enemies had abandoned and in making Skirmishes near Luxemburg they received news of the defeat of Thermes whose Troops had been cut in pieces by the Count d' Aiguemont in the Neighbourhood of Gravelines This loss had like to have ruined France Some have laid the fault upon Guise who might have prevented it by joyning with Thermes as soon as the Siege was
with three Armies who vaunted that the Pillars of Hercules were not capable to put a stop to his Career In the mean time the Emperour caus'd his Souldiers to advance but they had no sooner perceived the French in the Breach and Guise at the head of them than that they gave back as if the French were coming to attacque them It was to no purpose he joyn'd Prayers to threatnings it was not in his Power to make Soldiers advance that were trembling and full of all they had seen performed during the Siege they were fain to carry the Emperour back to his Tents out-raged with grief and crying that he was abandoned and had no longer any Men about him This enterprize having had such ill success he had nothing left but the despair of being obliged to raise the Siege Famine Cold Diseases and the continual Salies of the Besieged had caused above a third part of his Army to perish The rest could not be saved otherwise than by a Retreat which he was forced to resolve of notwithstanding all the Oaths he had made of taking the Town It was then he was heard to say That Fortune abandoned him to run to his Rival who was younger than he Perhaps never was a more shameful Retreat seen The Emperour who it may be said made his escape to Thionville had before his departure the vexation of seeing those he besieged come and kill his Soldiers in the very sight of his Quarters The Duke of Alva dislodged in the Night without beat of Drum leaving all the Ammunition in the Camp and all the Tents standing Guise having caused four pieces of Canon to be brought into a little Island he pointed them against the Tents of Albert and quickly commanded him to follow the rest The Besieged did not fail to sally out after them but their Fury was quickly changed into Compassion They found in the Camp that was newly abandoned all they could have found most dreadful in a Field of Battle where a great Army had been cut to pieces a horrible multitude of diseased and wounded the Earth covered with the Dead and dying weltring upon one another in the dirt the Bodies of those they had buried lying half out of the Earth with which they were ill-covered Those who were retreated were not in a much better condition Most of them cast away their Arms as not having strength to carry them any longer and being hardly able to support themselves The Prince of Roche-sur-Yon having overtaken some Troops of Spanish Cavalry and offering to fight them their Commander turning towards him How do you think said he to him we should have Force to fight You see that we have not enough left to run away from you Guise made appear as much Humanity in this occasion as he had shewn Valour and Conduct during the Siege He gave orders for the Burial of the Dead that were in the Camp He caused the Sick to be brought into the Town and having distributed them into Hospitals he appointed Money to be given them for their return home when they were recovered He sent back to the Duke of Alva all such of his Domesticks as were Prisoners and offered him as many covered Boats as he should have occasion of for the carrying his Sick to Thionville Thus Guise stayed the Emperour three Months before a Town that did not seem to be in a posture of resisting one moment against all Forces with which it was attacqued He gave such good Orders during the whole Siege that the Enemies durst never mount to the Assault though the Place was but imperfectly fortified While that with a small number of Men he daily made Sallies which did more damage to Charles his Army than the loss of a Battle could have done He appointed a general Procession for the rendring thanks to God and to compleat that Ceremony by as he would have it an agreeable Sacrifice he caused all such of Luthers Books as were found in the Town to be publickly burnt After which he recalled the Inhabitants who had absented themselves during the Siege and re-established the usuall Policy and having as well as he could made amends to those who had suffered any damages he returned to Court The following Year the King having over-run the Low Countries with an Army of Fifty thousand men used all possible means to come to a Battle before the Emperours Army should be strengthened by the Succours that were coming to him from Germany He besieged the Castle at Renty concluding that the Emperour not being far distant would run immediately to raise the Siege He was not mistaken in that Conjecture Guise went to view the Town and had like to have been killed by a Musquet Bullet which pierced his Cloaths and the Emperour being come to encamp within a League of the Town the French resolved to take the advantage of an opportunity they had so long waited for The two Armies were separated only by a Hill which concealed them from one another Upon this Hill there was a Wood which neither Party had yet possessed themselves of notwithstanding that it was extreamly necessary to them both but it was principally to the Imperialists whose Artillery might have incommoded extreamly the French Kings Army in the Valley at the bottom of this Hill and without further trouble would have obliged him to have raised the Siege Guise making no doubt but that the Emperour would send men to take in that Post caused three hundred Harquebusiers whom he himself had chosen out to be conceal'd there and placed some Corsebiteers before the Wood on the Enemies side that he might the more easily draw them into the Ambuscade by Retreating when they should be Attacqued The Imperialists fell into the Ambuscade and were repulsed with a very great loss but the Emperour hearing the noise of the Artillery with which the Castle was continually battered resolved to make an Effort for the securing it and to hazzard all for the driving the French from their Post He drew up his Army in Battalia and sent two thousand Horse four small Field-pieces and four thousand Harquebusiers to dis-lodge those who were in the Woods Guise advanced to second them with some Troops of Horse while that the King to whom he had caused notice to be given did himself dispose and prepare his Army for the Fight Guise caused his Harquebusiers to retire and Retreated himself by little and little that he might oblige the Imperialists to traverse the Wood and draw them into a little Plain which was on the other side of the Hill and near the French King's Quarters They took this Retreat for a Flight and no longer doubted of the Victory Gonzagues sent word to the Emperour that he should cause his Army to march in all haste and that the Vanguard of the French was put to rout All the Imperial Army advanced immediately with four small pieces of Cannon which were called the Emperours Pistols because they were mounted
upon four Wheels and were easily turned on all sides The first Battalions of the Enemies already appeared out of the Woods and fired upon those of the French Army when that Guise seeing-them at length where he wished them came to the Head of his Regiment that was most advanced in the Plain and gave the Signal to the Duke of Nemours to begin the Charge This first Attacque was very furious and the French were sharpely repulsed with the loss of several Officers But Guise and Nevers having rallied their Troops and being seconded by all the Light Cavalry commanded by d' Aumalle they routed the first Battalion of the Germans And the Duke of Nevers with his Regiment falling then upon the Spanish Harquebusiers who were not able to resist him all the Enemies Army was put to rout The Count of Vulfenfourt was obliged to fly as well as the rest though he had promised to tread the French Gendarmes under Feet with two thousand Rheistres or German Horse he Commanded and who to appear the more terrible had horribly coloured their Faces with black The French gain'd in that Battle seventeen Ensignes Colours five Cornets and the four Field-Pieces that were brought into the Wood and the Emperours Pistols About two hundred men were slain on their side and two thousand on the Enemies However the Spaniards if we may believe the Count of Rocca who has written the History of Charles the Fifth imagined some time after that it was they who had gained the Victory insomuch that Don Lewis d' Avila distrusting perhaps the Testimony that the Historians give thereof caused that Battle to be painted in his Country-House where the French were seen flying from their Enemies And that Charles the Fifth through a modesty which the Author of his History does not sail to commend him for was of Opinion the Piece should be reformed and that they should draw the French making a Retreat because said he it was rather an honourable Retreat than a shameful Flight That day gave Birth to the hatred that broke out afterwards between Guise and Admiral Chastillon and which has had such fatal Consequences These two Lords had been such Friends during their Youth as that they were not able to live without one another wearing the same Colours and dressing themselves after the same manner This ardour begun to cool and Guise complained that the Admiral had given him insincere Connsels in an affair of importance The Admiral whether through Resentment or Envy reported after the Battle that Guise was not to be found where he ought to have been during the Fight They thereupon quarrelled in the Kings Chamber who commanded them to embrace and be as good Friends as formerly but these kind of Injuries are never forgotten nor are they ever pardoned In the mean time a Truce was made for five years between the Emperour and the King But Cardinal Caraffa would not suffer it to last long This turbulent and restless Man being shock'd with all that had an appearance of Peace reported every where that the King could not make an agreement having an offensive and defensive League with his Unkle He came Legate into France and made so much noise against the Truce that he made the King resolve to break it The Council were in no wise for this Rupture neither was it on that side that the Cardinal had made his Cabal He gained the fair Dutchess of Valentinois by his Gallantries and the fine presents he made her from the Pope and himself She perswaded the King to War both out of acknowledgment to the Legate and that Guise might have the Command of the Armies with whom she had contracted a great Friendship Caraffa assured him of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples which the Pope promised him the Investiture of and to which all those of the House of Lorrain have always had pretentions Guise being naturally ambitious suffered himself to be easily flattered with the hopes of a Crown and he was likewise drawn in by the Counsels of the Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother for whom he had ever too much deference This was a violent Man and to whom nothing appeared difficult hold to undertake all things indifferently and often abused the Authority of his Brother that he might bring his own designs to pass The King not knowing how to deny the Dutchess sent only for form sake to the Emperour and to Philip his Son who was then King of Spain to exhort them to withdraw their Troops out of the Territories of the Holy See This Proposition was received as a Declaration of War and Guise full of great hopes marched into Italy at the Head of fifteen thousand Men. He was looked upon as one of the greatest Generals of his Age and beloved as the most Civil best Bred Person of Quality at Court Thus almost all the Nobility of France attended him in this expedition some to learn their Trade under so great a Master others to acquire Glory under a Commander who being sure of his own bore no envy to that of his Souldiers It is in this occasion that it must be confessed that all the times of the Lives of great Men are not alike for it is certain that Guise did not perform in that War all that was expected from him whether he had not the Succours he ought to have had or that he was so happy as not to be able to succeed in a War that appeared manifestly unjust He immediately attacqued the City of Valenza which he took without difficulty and made but a kind of sorry answer to the Emperours Lieutenant in the Land of Milan who complained of the infraction of the Truce After the taking of Valenza the Council of War was of Opinion that advantage should be taken of the general Consternation and of the want of Men at that time in Milan It is certain that Guise might easily have conquered it But he would never be perswaded to stay notwithstanding the remonstrances that were made him whether as he said he had most express Orders to march on or that the Idea of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples did not permit him to think of any thing else Perhaps one of the Reasons that made him pass on so fast was the fear of being obliged to yield the Command to the Duke of Ferrara his Father in Law who in the League that was made with the Pope was nominated Generalissimo of the Kings Armies in Italy For he knew very well that this Prince having Reasons not to absent himself from his Dominions would never think of following the Army as far as Naples Whereupon he came to Bologne where he neither found the Forces nor the Ammunition they had given him hopes of He made great Complaints thereof to Caraffa who satisfied him with ill Reasons and Promises that had no effect whether he had already made his Accomodation under-hand with the Spaniard as several persons have believed or that he was a