indiscreetly and having taken D' Aumale himself Prisoner made without difficulty his Treaty with the Emperour and quitting the white Scarf for the red he came and encamped at the Mount St. Martin with all his Troops Thus Guise having only a small number of men in a great and ill fortified Town saw himself besieged by three Armies that mounted to above a hundred thousand Foot twenty three thousand Horse a hundred and twenty pieces of Cannon and seven thousand Pioneers The truth is that he reckoned much more upon those he had with him than he should have done upon a much greater number The rumour of this Siege and the glory that was there to be acquired had drawn several Volunteers and all the considerable Persons of Quality in the Kingdom There were three Princes of the Blood Anguien and Conde Brothers to the King of Navarre and Charles de la Roche-yon their Cousin the Grand Priour of France the Marquess d'Elborut Guises his Brother James of Savoy Duke of Nemours Francis of Vendosme Vidame of Chartes Montmorency and Danville the Constable's Sons Horace Farneze Duke of Castre and several others whose names are found in particular Relations Guise was not ignorant what he might expect from so many brave men but he knew likewise very well how difficult it is to rule Volunteers who usually thinking how to make appear their valour pretend to serve after their own mode will be in all places and almost ever render themselves useless by their over-eagerness for too great performances Wherefore he shared the Compass of the Walls amongst all the Princes and Lords in the Town He made them agree that every one should keep the Post that should be allotted him without undertaking to be in other places and ordered that all the Volunteers should chuse Companies wherein they should perform the duty of Souldiers obeying their Captains and doing nothing but by their orders upon pain of being put out of the Town The Emperour having made some stay at Thionville at length arrived at his Camp and had his quarters in the Castle of Lorgne behind the Abby of Saint Arnoul His presence having redoubled the ardour of his men and after all his Artillery having been planted they battered the Town after the most furious manner that was ever heard of They fired in one day alone forty thousand Shots of Cannon against that part of the Wall that is between the Platform of St. Mary and the Gate of Champagn This horrible Tempest continued for several days with the same fury and with so great a noise that Historians do assure that it was heard forty Leagues from the Town The Besieged did oppose such violent efforts with an invincible courage and a continual labour Men and Women Souldiers and Citizens being equally animated by the example of Guise who found nothing below him but spent Days and Nights in carrying Earth to repair the Ruines the Artillery had made and to prevent those it might make At length the Tower of St. Michel and that of Lignieres not having been able to resist the fury of the Cannon were beaten to Powder That of Vassieux was almost totally ruined and in a few days after the whole Pan of the Wall that was between those two Towers of about a hundred and twenty paces in length was overturned into the False-bray But the French not being of a humour to spend their time in defending themselves against Cannon Bullets and repairing Breaches caused Sallies to be daily made and more Besiegers than besieged they went to seek out their Enemies in their very Tents Guise himself chose those who were to sally out every day he stayed at the Gate with a body of reserve to second them in case they were too much pressed and when they returned he received them with that sweetness which is so agreeable in persons who are raised above others and gave them Commendations which both recompenced and augmented their valour And indeed this Conduct made his Men do things that are hardly credible A Serjeant was seen with his Halbert and followed only by five or six Souldiers to clear a Trench and drive from thence above three hundred Men others went and nailed the Artillery after having killed the Cannoneers upon their very Cannons An infinite number of such like actions may be seen in the Relation that Salignac has given of that Siege Guise from thence concluded that the Emperour would not easily become Master of the Town He wrote to the King whom this Siege put in pain that his Majesty might turn his Arms where he pleased and that he undertook to defend Metz ten Months entire The King having received this News caused his Army to march into Picardy when he very luckily recovered Hesdin The Emperours Army had been already two Months before Metz without doing any thing and were hardly able to resist any longer against the rigour of the Winter against Famine and the diseases the Camp was full of and the continual Sallies of the besieged This Prince seeing that the courage of his Men did daily diminish with their strength that there was a vast number whom misery and cold had rendered uncapable of serving and that of those who were sick some quitted the Camp others threatned to leave it He resolved to try at length a general Assault The breach was sufficiently great and the Souldiers cryed dayly that they might be led to it rather than suffer them to perish thus miserably by hunger and cold Guise being informed of this design and seeing the Enemies were ranging in Battle he on his side prepared to receive them He gave his Orders with that chearfulness which is so necessary for inspiring courage into Souldiers who being not for the most part capable to judg of things by themselves seek in the looks of their Commander for what they are to hope or fear from the success of an enterprize He was ever saying something that was obliging to all those he met with sometimes commending the valour of some and then again promising recompence to others In short all the brave Men in the Town being assembled upon the Rampart Guise shewing them that long space of Wall that was battered down and through which the Enemies were preparing to mount I am overjoyed Gentlemen said he to see that the Enemies have at length overturned that Barrier which put a stop to your Courage and which was more useful to them than to us It is very just that after you had been so often to seek them out in their very Camp they should at least come once and take a view of this City which they boasted they would so easily Conquer Here is now an occasion of acquiring the Glory which they will not often offer to you Take advantage of it Gentlemen and acquaint all Europe that have at present their Eyes upon you that it has not been impossible for a small number of French-men to put a stop to an Emperour who besieged them
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
daily meet with Guise without showing him his displeasure in such a manner as might have very ill consequences there was an accommodation proposed between them which was effected after this manner The King having sent for them both to him in the presence of all the Court and having ordered Guise to speak first he told the Prince Sir I neither have had nor would have had a hand in any thing which should he against your Honour or your Life nor was I the Author Motive nor Instigator of your Imprisonment To which the Prince made answer Sir I look upon the Person or Persons as base and wicked who were the occasion of it Thereupon Guise replyed I am of the same Opinion but it does not at all touch me After which the King desired them to embrace one another and to remain good Friends In the mean time the Admirals Credit augmented every day and Guise not being able to bear with the publick contempt there was had of Religion nor perhaps of the diminution of his Authority withdrew to his own House after having complained to the Queen of the Protection she gave to the Hugonots The Constable the Marshal of Saint Andre the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Nemours were all of the same Cabal and retired likewise at the same time Guise did not remain idle in his Retreat He interessed the King of Spain in his discontent and this Prince shared in it the more willingly in that he sought nothing more than an occasion of showing his Zeal for the Catholick Religion by seizing on the rest of the Territories of the King of Navarre who openly countenanced the Hugonots Guise advantageously made use of that occasion with Anthony who was naturally fearful He thereupon promised him a match between him and Mary Steward and to cause the Kingdom of Scotland to be given him or to cause the King of Spain to deliver to him Sardaign Anthony who knew himself well enough to judge that of himself he could never oblige the King of Spain to restore Navarre to him listened greedily to these propositions and was at length so well perswaded that he entered into very strict engagements with Guise and withdrew himself wholly from the Hugonots Party which his Brother the Prince of Conde was the Head of Then Guise knowing that having the King of Navarre on his side who was Lieutenant General of the Kingdom he should be stronger than his Enemies he resolved to return to Paris where he was impatiently expected As he passed through Vassy a small City of Champagne word was brought him that the Hugonots held their meeting in a Barn hard by A Company of insolent and useless people who are ever following great Persons run thither immediately and who never show any Zeal to their Religion but by out-raging those who were not of it They begun to exclaim against the Hugonots calling them Dogs and Rebels to their King These injuries were repulsed by others in short they came to blows and Guise running thither to put an end to this disorder received by chance a blow with a Stone which covered all his Face with Blood Then his Domesticks believing their Violence authorized by his wound could not be withheld by his threatnings or his Prayers they fell upon the Hugonots who had not Armes there was about two hundred wounded in that unlucky Encounter and near sixty killed upon the place This is what was called the Massacre of Vassy and which has been so diversly reported according to the several interests of those who have written thereof insomuch that one Writer has had the Confidence to affirm that Guise led his Men to the attacque of that Barn as to an Assault the Trumpets sounding and himself marching at the head of them with his Sword drawn The Prince of Conde waiting only for an occasion to be stirring did not fail to make a great Bustle for what happened at Vassy Francour and Beza came to the King at Monceaux to complain thereof in the name of all the Hugonot Party But the King of Navarre being no longer on their side treated them as seditious in the Kings presence and sent them back with small satisfaction But the Queen who countenanced the Hugonots more than ever had entered into such strict engagements with the Prince of Conde and the Admiral that they governed in her name In short the Catholick Religion was upon the point of being banished France if Guise the Constable and the Marshal de Saint Andre who saw that on its ruin that of their Authority depended had not resolved to oppose vigorously all that the Queen should do in order to its destruction The Hugonots hereupon called this Union the Triumvirate The business of Vassy had made so much noise as that it was impossible but that it should have very ill Censequences and Guise meditated a Journey to Paris that was suspected by the Prince of Conde and the Queen He was come from Joinville to his house of Nanteuil where he received Letters by which she ordered him not to go to Paris and to come to the King without being accompanied But Guise finding himself supported by the King of Navarre and being willing to make known to the Hugonots that he did not fear them made answer that he was taken up with receiving his Friends and that after he should have acquitted himself of that Devoir he would see what he had to do The Marshal de Saint Andre used the same language and told the Queen who ordered him to retire from his Government that considering the posture Affairs were in it was the Duty of his place not to abandon the Kings Person However notwithstanding the Queens Orders Guise came to Paris with a numerous Train The Provost of the Merchants and the Sheriffs went to meet him and the people received him as a Man sent from Heaven for the preservation of their Religion And indeed there was no longer any hopes but in him The Queen seemed to approve of the enterprizes of the Hugonots instead of suppressing them and her protection had rendered them so insolent that they daily committed new Disorders insomuch that the Priests could hardly carry the Host through the Streets without being exposed to the insults of the Rabble The Queen outraged at Guises contemning her Orders and fearing the effects of the strict Union that was formed between him and the King of Navarre resolved to unmask and to put her own and the Kings Person into the hands of the Prince of Conde The Prince was at Paris with a great Train when Guise arrived there He went from thence some days after upon Condition that Guise should do the like and retired to his House de la Ferte where he secretly raised Men and took measures with the Queen for the putting their design in Execution Guise who let nothing escape his knowledge seeing of what moment it was to prevent them put a Garrison of fifteen hundred Men into Paris
to your Mother The Condition thou seest me in will be to thee as long as thou livest a fine Instruction of the Vanity of the things of this World as often as thou shalt remember that a Great General in the midst of his Army was not able to defend himself from the treachery of a simple Souldier I do not say this out of Vanity but to make thee comprehend the better that what sâ—ems greatest in the Eyes of men is nothing before God and perhaps destroyed in a moment I have had great Offices which I have always endeavoured to acquit my self of as I ought to do Do you the same in those it shall please the King and Queen to honour thee with but above all think rather of meriting them by thy Services than of obtaining them by thy Cares and by Intrigues which are very often Criminal My dear Child have always the Fear of God and Love of Vertue before thy Eyes but remember that these Sentiments are only learnt and kept in the Commerce of good People wherefore contract Friendship with such Persons as are Vertuous and carefully avoid irregular Companies which the Court is but too full of and where the greatest Crimes are excused under the Notion of Follies of Youth God judges otherwise of them than men do and there are no small Crimes before him I heartily beseech him that he would bestow on thee the Grace to follow these Counsels it is all that I wish thee in giving thee my Benediction and is what I am going to demand of him in Heaven where I hope his Goodness will not disdain to receive me Then looking upon all his Friends and his Brothers who were weeping he thanked them for their Cares and desired them not to grieve for his Death and as they exclaimed against the blackness of that horrible Assassinate I avow to you said he to them that I am troubled at it for the Honour of France I should never have believed that it could have born Men capable of committing an Action that would raise a horrour in Barbarians But God from whom I expect Pardon for my Faults commands us to pardon our Enemies I heartily pardon them and I take him to Witness the sincerity of the intentions I have had all my Life time for the good and repose of this Kingdom After that he would hear no more talk of things of this World and dyed at length on the sixth day after he had received his Wound being hardly fifty years old He was sensibly regretted by all those whom his Death was of no advantage to The Souldiers deplored him as their Father and they run through all the Camp asking one another where they should find such another General as they had newly lost who is it that would expose himself to dangers before them And who would henceforward make inquiry for the wounded and distribute to them Money with his own Hands And in short who would shelter them from the rigours and hardness of the Constable The Catholicks said that they had lost their Protectour and looked upon his Death as a Martyr who had suffered for the defence of the Faith He left his Family incommoded and charged with Debts which is perhaps as glorious to a Man who has had the chiefest Places and Offices of the Kingdom as it is shameful for a private Person He had all the Qualities which have ever made the greatest Heroes and if his Enemies have reproached him with any thing he was not so much to be accused as the Misfortune of the Age and the disorders which happened during his time He was a true Friend a Quality pretty rare at Court and having made the Fortune of a great number of Persons even those who most decryed his Conduct have been obliged to allow that he never advanced any other than Persons of a known and extraordinary Merit He was exact even to the doing all himself when he was in War going always in Person to view the Places he designed to Attacque which he understood better than any Man of that Age. He wrote all his Dispatches with hs own Hand and he spent whole Nights sometimes in so doing When he was wounded at Boulogne his Life was despaired of the Chyrurgions were obliged to set their Feet against his Head to draw out the piece of the Lance that stuck in it and they feared that the violence of the pain would make him expire in their Hands But he was the first to encourage them and du Bellay says that he suffered all that cruel Operation with the same Tranquillity as if they had only pulled away a Hair His Civility and the sweetness of his Carriage procured him the love of all People He never said any thing that any body could be offended at and if some hasty Word escaped from him he repaired it with an extraordinary care He was told that a Gentleman called Saint Val complained that he had struck him with his Sword on that day that the Battle of Renty was fought because he was too eager to engage the Enemies and out-went his Ranks He promised to give him satisfaction therein And indeed having met with him in the Kings Tent he told him before all the Company Mounsieur de Saint Val you ought not to be displeased at my happening to strike you with my Sword since far from being disadvantageous to you it makes appear how much ardour you had to sight the Enemies I take all these Gentlemen here to Witness and desire of you that we may live Friends as before He was so brave as never to be amazed at any thing and from thence comes the presence of mind which he preserves in the greatest dangers They once shewed him a Man who had several times boasted that he would kill him He looked squintingly upon him and told those who had shown him to him That Man will never kill me he is not worth the trouble of taking into Custody After the Death of the King of Navarre who was kill'd at the Siege of Rouen it was the general apprehension that the Kings Army would disband of it self being no longer commanded by a Prince of the Blood And the Queen was told that all the Officers talked of going to the Prince of Conde No no Madam said Guise to her be not affraid the number of those who shall quit your Army will be very small and besides they will be such as that we shall gain by losing them Traytors do but hurt where they are but if there be any here I shall stick to them so close and have them so well watched that they shall not dare so much as to make a Leaf tremble I cannot forbear adding one word more which will help extreamly to make known the Character of his mind and his humour Some Company talking one day of the Troubles that begun to be a brooding in France after the Death of Henry the Second Montluc quick and boiling like a Gascon as he was said That there was no other causes of these ills than the Ambition of the King of Navarre who envy'd the great Actions of Guise and complain'd every where that he had usurped over him the Government of the State He had discoursed thereof to me continued Montluc Whereupon I made him answer That if he had such great pretensions you ought each of you some fair Morning to examin them with a good Sword and that I was sure you would make good my Words Guise who easily foresaw the Consequences that such a Discourse might have answered him very coldly Montluc have you an Order signed from the King of Navarre to talk to me after this manner And Montluc replying that he had not and that he had framed all this himself You think said he to him that you are still in Piemont diverting your self in seeing your Souldiers fight against one another learn a little that the King of Navarre and I am not born to exercise your Imaginations I do not believe that I have any thing to dispute with him or that he does complain of me When he lets me hear from him he shall hear from me We have long known one another All the learned Men of his time strove to make Epitaphs on him which are still in being But if it is a great honour to be commended by a Man who himself merits the highest Applauses we may say that nothing is more glorious to the memory of Guise than the Verses which have been made of him by the Illustrious Chancellour of the Hospital His Virtue was as much admired by Strangers as by French-men The Italians and the Spaniards themselves who cannot be reproached with Commending others to excess call'd him The Great Duke of Guise and at the interview of Bayonne which was two years after his Death they seemed extream earnest to see his Widow and the Prince of Joinville his Son never calling them otherwise than la muger y el hijo d'aquel gran Ducque di Guisa His Body was carried to the Chartreux and from then to Nostre Dame where the Funeral Rites were very Magnificent before they carried him to Joinville where he was buried The wretched Poltrot had the same punishment inflicted on him as those have who have made attemps upon the sacred Persons of our Kings But this was not the least vengeance that was taken of this Crime and we may say that never any one Mans Death has set so much blood a flowing nor drawn after it so great a number of Illustrious Victimes FINIS