A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times | Page 6

had promised the Leaguers of Paris, who were already
talking of the iron cage in which the Bearnese would be sent to them.
"Henry IV.," continues M. Vitet, "felt some vexation at seeing his
forecasts checkmated by Mayenne's manoeuvre, and at having had so
much earth removed to so little profit; but he was a man of resources,
confident as the Gascons are, and with very little of pig-headedness. To
change all his plans was with him the work of an instant. Instead of
awaiting the foe in his intrenchments, he saw that it was for him to go
and feel for them on the other side of the valley, and that, on pain of
being invested, he must not leave the Leaguers any exit but the very
road they had taken to come." Having changed all his plans on this new
system, Henry breathed more freely; but he did not go to sleep for all
that: he was incessantly backwards and forwards from Dieppe to
Arques, from Arques to Dieppe and to the Faubourg du Pollet.
Mayenne, on the contrary, seemed to have fallen into a lethargy; he had
not yet been out of his quarters during the nearly eight and forty hours
since he had taken them. On the 17th of September, 1589, in the
morning, however, a few hundred light-horse were seen putting
themselves in motion, scouring the country and coming to fire their
pistols close to the fosses of the royal army. The skirmish grew warm
by degrees. "My son," said Marshal de Biron to the young count of
Auvergne [natural son of Charles IX. and Mary Touchet], "charge: now
is the time." The young prince, without his hat, and his horsemen
charged so vigorously that they put the Leaguers to the rout, killed
three hundred of them, and returned quietly within their lines, by
Biron's orders, without being disturbed in their retreat. These partial
and irregular encounters began again on the 18th and 19th of
September, with the same result. The Duke of Mayenne was nettled and
humiliated; he had his prestige to recover. He decided to concentrate all

his forces right on the king's intrenchments, and attack them in front
with his whole army. The 20th of September passed without a single
skirmish. Henry, having received good information that he would be
attacked the next day, did not go to bed. The night was very dark. He
thought he saw a long way off in the valley a long line of lighted
matches; but there was profound silence; and the king and his officers
puzzled themselves to decide if they were men or glow-worms. On the
21st, at five A. M., the king gave orders for every one to be ready and
at his post. He himself repaired to the battle-field. Sitting in a big fosse
with all his officers, he had his breakfast brought thither, and was
eating with good appetite, when a prisoner was brought to him, a
gentleman of the League, who had advanced too far whilst making a
reconnaissance. "Good day, Belin," said the king, who recognized him,
laughing: "embrace me for your welcome appearance." Belin embraced
him, telling him that he was about to have down upon him thirty
thousand foot and ten thousand horse. "Where are your forces?" he
asked the king, looking about him. "O! you don't see them all, M. de
Belin," said Henry: "you don't reckon the good God and the good right,
but they are ever with me."
The action began about ten o'clock. The fog was still so thick that there
was no seeing one another at ten paces. The ardor on both sides was
extreme; and, during nearly three hours, victory seemed to twice shift
her colors. Henry at one time found himself entangled amongst some
squadrons so disorganized that he shouted, "Courage, gentlemen; pray,
courage! Can't we find fifty gentlemen willing to die with their king?"
At this moment Chatillon, issuing from Dieppe with five hundred
picked men, arrived on the field of battle. The king dismounted to fight
at his side in the trenches; and then, for a quarter of an hour, there was
a furious combat, man to man. At last, "when things were in this
desperate state," says Sully, "the fog, which had been very thick all the
morning, dropped down suddenly, and the cannon of the castle of
Arques getting sight of the enemy's army, a volley of four pieces was
fired, which made four beautiful lanes in their squadrons and battalions.
That pulled them up quite short; and three or four volleys in succession,
which produced marvellous effects, made them waver, and, little by
little, retire all of them behind the turn of the valley, out of cannon-shot,

and finally to their quarters." Mayenne had the retreat sounded.