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
Power and the others were determined to attempt all things for the destroying it and put themselves in the place of their Enemies The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde could not be perswaded to come thither notwithstanding all the Instances that had been made them Thus the Admiral who after them was the most considerable of their Party was the Man who spoke for the Hugonots He presented a Request to the King in their Name by which they demanded Churches in all the Cities of the Kingdom and a full liberty for the Exercise of their Religion The King received the request and it being wondered at that it was not Signed the Admiral had the boldness to answer That he would easily cause it to be Signed by fifty thousand men He added That it was strange that they should bring up the King as they did in distrust and fear and that he was always environed with Soldiers as if he had been in the midst of his Enemies The Guises replyed with a great deal of sharpness to what the Admiral had said That if the King was obliged to keep Souldiers about his Person the fault was in them who had dared to Conspire against his Life and that if there were fifty thousand Rebels ready to Sign the Request that was presented there would be found millions of Subjects that were faithful to their Religion and their Prince and would be able to suppress the enterprise that should be made against either of them The Assembly separated without doing any thing they only Convened the States at Meaux for the Month of December following and gave Orders that they should cease putting to Death those of the new Religion who were at that time too numerous to hope they could be destroyed by Punishments The Prince of Conde was retired to his Brother in Bearne where he was contriving a new Conspiracy against the Guises La Sague whom he had sent to Paris was taken into Custody at Estampes as he was upon his return encharged with Letters and Memoires It was discovered that the Princes were to come to Court and that they had taken measures to seize on in their passage the best Cities that were in their way These things were confessed by La Sague whom they had terrified for the Letters did contain in appearance only meer Civilities that had nothing Criminal But when by the Information of that Man they had made them have a hand in the Plot they found the Papers were to be interpreted after another way and several things were discovered They found written by Dardoir the Constables Secretary's hand that his Master still persisted in the Design of ridding himself of the Guises which might be effected maugre the Queen and the States and in order to that the presence of the Princes was only expected Dardoir added of his own Head that the execution of this Design appeared difficult to several and that it would be more expedient that the Princes at their arrival at Court should cause the Guises to be killed by trusty people that this would change in an instant the face of things and that then they would not find it difficult to get all affairs into their own hands Guise kept these Memoires without making any noise being resolved to make use of them upon occasion And indeed the States who were appointed to meet at Meaux having been removed to Orleans Guise ordered his business so well that he engaged the two Princes to come thither notwithstanding the earnest advice of all their Friends who would have diverted them from that Journey and notwithstanding the just reasons they had of themselves to distrust the usages they should meet with there The Prince of Conde was taken into Custody at his arrival and within a few days having been brought to a Tryal before Commissioners whom the King had nominated he was condemned to lose his Head We cannot read without horrour what was reported at that time and which has since been written That the Guises fearing the resentments of the King of Navarre and concluding besides that their Authority would never be peaceable nor secure as long as there should remain a Prince of the Blood to contest it they had undertaken to rid themselves of them but by such means as if they had been successful would have caused the whole Royal Family to have perished by it self that the King whom they had made to comprehend how important it was not to suffer a Prince to live who might revenge the Death of the Prince of Conde was to send for the King of Navarre to his Chamber that he should reproach him in very sharp terms with the Crimes of his Brother and the just reasons of complaint he had against himself the Prince would either confidently deny or at least vindicate himself with too much heat and thereupon he was to be stabbed to Death by People the King should give a sign to and who were to be in Ambuscade Others add that this Prince had notice of the danger which threatned him and after having considered a long time of what he had to do he resolved to run the hazzard of what might happen and that having told his mind to one of his faithfullest Domesticks as he was upon the point of going into the Kings Chamber If it happen said he to him that I fall under the multitude and the treachery of my Enemies take my Shirt all bloody carry it to my Wife and my Son they will read in my Blood what they ought to do to revenge me That then he went to the King who durst not or who would not give the Signal they had agreed of and that Guise being vexed to see his enterprise thus fail cryed out to those who were with him What a poor Prince have we Though the recital alone of this Story makes it seem incredible principally in regard of Guise who was not capable of advising an Assassinate I thought my self obliged to mention it here as I have found it written by the Historians of that time The King being seized by a violent sickness the state of things was very much changed The Guises seeing that it must needs have a very ill issue pressed the Queen to put the Prince of Conde to Death and to take the King of Navarre into Custody But this Princess being ambitious to Govern and no longer able to bear with the Authority of the Guises did not think fit to do a thing that would have contributed to the confirming it She took measures wholly contrary She came to an accommodation with the Princes and the King being dead the Prince was set at liberty As he was haughty and imperious he did not conceal his resentments against such persons as he believed to have been the Authors of his Imprisonment and he caused those to tremble in their turn who two days before thought themselves Masters of his Life And the King of Navarre consenting that the Queen should have the Regency
was declared Lieutenant General of the Kingdom The agitation of a Court filled with so many several Interests and the Devoirs which they crowded to pay the new King caused those to be forgotten which they owed the King who was newly expired His Body was carried to Saint Denis being only attended by Sansac and la Brosse who had been his Governours and Lewis Guillard Bishop of Senlis who was blind People were not satisfied with the Guises though they excused themselves that they had stayed with their Niece to comfort her It was thought strange that there being six Brothers of them at Court not one had accompanied the Corps of a Prince who had been so kind to them during his Life They were likewise reproached with their ingratitude after a very ingenuous manner There was fastened upon the Pall of the Coffin a Ticket wherein these words were written Tanneguy du Chastel Where art thou This Tanneguy du Chastel had been Lord High Chamberlain under Charles the Seventh who had banished him though he had rendered great Services to the King and the State But this ill usage not having been able to stifle the acknowledgements of the benefits he had formerly received as soon as he knew of the Death of his Master he came to bewail him upon his Coffin and did at his own charges the Funeral Rites which no one would take care of The Queens Ambition was the preservation of the Guises but without their being obliged to her for it She was affraid that by their removal the Princes would absolutely become Masters Thus she entertained both Parties that she might make use of the one to poise the Authority of the other Things were during some days in a pretty great Tranquillity But the most prudent easily perceived that this Calm could not last long The King of Navarre being grown haughty with his new Authority and thinking that he might at length oblige Guise to renounce the Government sought only to vex him upon all occasions He quarrelled with him for keeping the Keys of the Castle as Lord High Steward and pretended that they were to be brought to him as being Lieutenant General of the Kingdom The Queen not daring to Condemn this Prince openly proposed the bringing the Keys to her but this temperament did not please him he threatned her to retire if Guise was not removed and to take with him all the Princes of the Blood and the Constable likewise whose Authority was very great at that time The Queen in this perplexity caused the Constable to be forbidden to leave the Court he obeyed more willingly than was expected and this stayed the King of Navarre who was affraid they would accustom themselves to be without him as they had done in the former Reign In the mean time the Admiral had got such an influence over the Queen that she did nothing but by his Counsel both as to Religion and the Government of the State The Constable who was fixed to the Catholick Religion preferrably to all the Interests at Court was shocked at the Queen's Conduct He could not bear she should permit the Hugonots to exercise their Religion in the very Louvre nor that she obliged the King to assist at the Sermons of the Bishop of Valence whose Sentiments were but too much suspected He represented to her that it was against the Kings honour and Conscience to suffer the excesses that were daily committed in his very Family contrary to the Religion he made profession of But seeing that his Remonstrances were to no purpose and that this Princess only considered things as they might augment or diminish her Authority he begun to withdraw himself from her interests The Marshal de Saint Andre did dexterously make use of that Conjuncture to unite the Constable with Guise who desired nothing more He succeeded in his undertaking These two Lords had ever had a very pure and sincere affection for the Catholick Religion and we may say that it is to them France is indebted for the Conservation of it in that Kingdom Thus they passed over the several Interests which separated them from one another and forgot their ancient Enmities to unite themselves in the Design of opposing the enterprizes of the Hugonots The Constable went to the Communion with Guise on Easter-day and in the Evening they supped together at the Constable's House with the Prince of Joinville Guise's Son and the Marshal de Saint Andre The Constable going afterwards to Chantilly Guise retired to his House at Nanteuil which is not far distant and from whence he wrote to him very often He stayed there till Spring and then followed the King who was going to be Crowned at Rheimes Upon the occasion of this Ceremony there arose a dispute for precedence between Guise and the Princes of the Blood the source of which was as followeth There was formerly but twelve Peers of France six Ecclesiasticks and six Laicks But all the Titles of the Laicks having been suppressed whether by the Re-union of their Lands to the Crown or otherwise the Kings have reserved to themselves the power of honouring with that Quality those they shall think fit without confining themselves to the number which is no longer limited However for the preserving the memory of the first Institution the Custom is That at the Coronation of Kings besides the six Ecclesiastick Peers who assist at the Ceremony six others are chosen from amongst the Laicks who represent the six ancient ones and who assisting there only in Quality of Peers have no other Rank amongst them than that of their Seniority without having regard to the Offices they are otherwise possessed of Insomuch by example that a meer Gentleman would take place there of the Constable if he had been made Peer before him The dispute was to know if this Custome ought to reach to the Princes of the Blood The Prince of Montpensier pretended to go before Guise though Guise was a more ancient Peer than he He said that the quality of a Prince of the Blood eminently contained all the others and that this was the reason that those who had the honour to be so did not take their Rank among them according to their Dignities but according as they were more or less related to the Kings Person Guise made answer That Montpensier not assisting at that Ceremony as Prinoc of the Blood but only as Peer of France his quality ought not to regulate the precedence in that occasion But his best reason was that Custome was for him his Father at the Coronation of Henry the Second and he himself at that of Francis the Second having preceeded the Princes of the Blood Thus he walked immediately after the King of Navarre and before the Prince of Montpensier though Prince Alexander who was afterwards King under the name of Henry the Third went before the King of Navarre As it was difficult after what had passed but that the Prince of Conde who was at Court should