History of the United Netherlands, 1590b | Page 7

had been seen floating wildly and purposelessly
over the field; for his bannerman, Pot de Rhodes, a young noble of
Dauphiny, wounded mortally in the head, with blood streaming over
his face and blinding his sight, was utterly unable to control his horse,
who gallopped hither and thither at his own caprice, misleading many
troopers who followed in his erratic career. A cavalier, armed in proof,
and wearing the famous snow-white plume, after a hand-to-hand
struggle with a veteran of Count Bossu's regiment, was seen to fall

dead by the side of the bannerman: The Fleming, not used to boast,
loudly asserted that he had slain the Bearnese, and the news spread
rapidly over the battle- field. The defeated Confederates gained new
courage, the victorious Royalists were beginning to waver, when
suddenly, between the hostile lines, in the very midst of the battle, the
king gallopped forward, bareheaded, covered with blood and dust, but
entirely unhurt. A wild shout of "Vive le Roi!" rang through the air.
Cheerful as ever, he addressed a few encouraging words to his soldiers,
with a smiling face, and again led a charge. It was all that was
necessary to complete the victory. The enemy broke and ran away on
every side in wildest confusion, followed by the royalist cavalry, who
sabred them as they fled. The panic gained the foot-soldiers, who
should have supported the cavalry, but had not been at all engaged in
the action. The French infantry threw away their arms as they rushed
from the field and sought refuge in the woods. The Walloons were so
expeditious in the race, that they never stopped till they gained their
own frontier. The day was hopelessly lost, and although Mayenne had
conducted himself well in the early part of the day, it was certain that
he was excelled by none in the celerity of his flight when the rout had
fairly begun. Pausing to draw breath as he gained the wood, he was
seen to deal blows with his own sword among the mob of fugitives, not
that he might rally them to their flag and drive them back to another
encounter, but because they encumbered his own retreat.
The Walloon carbineers, the German riders, and the French lancers,
disputing as to the relative blame to be attached to each corps, began
shooting and sabring each other, almost before they were out of the
enemy's sight. Many were thus killed. The lansquenets were all put to
the sword. The Swiss infantry were allowed to depart for their own
country on pledging themselves not again to bear arms against Henry
IV.
It is probable that eight hundred of the leaguers were either killed on
the battle-field or drowned in the swollen river in their retreat. About
one-fourth of that number fell in the army of the king. It is certain that
of the contingent from the obedient Netherlands, two hundred and
seventy, including their distinguished general, lost their lives. The
Bastard of Brunswick, crawling from beneath a heap of slain, escaped
with life. Mayenne lost all his standards and all the baggage of his army,

while the army itself was for a time hopelessly dissolved.
Few cavalry actions have attained a wider celebrity in history than the
fight of Ivry. Yet there have been many hard-fought battles, where the
struggle was fiercer and closer, where the issue was for a longer time
doubtful, where far more lives on either side were lost, where the final
victory was immediately productive of very much greater results, and
which, nevertheless, have sunk into hopeless oblivion. The, personal
details which remain concerning the part enacted by the adventurous
king at this most critical period of his career, the romantic interest
which must always gather about that ready-witted, ready-sworded
Gascon, at the moment when, to contemporaries, the result of all his
struggles seemed so hopeless or at best so doubtful; above all, the
numerous royal and princely names which embellished the roll-call of
that famous passage of arms, and which were supposed, in those days
at least, to add such lustre to a battle-field, as humbler names, however
illustrious by valour or virtue, could never bestow, have made this
combat for ever famous.
Yet it is certain that the most healthy moral, in military affairs, to be
derived from the event, is that the importance of a victory depends less
upon itself than on the use to be made of it. Mayenne fled to Mantes,
the Duke of Nemours to Chartres, other leaders of the League in
various directions, Mayenne told every body he met that the Bearnese
was killed, and that although his own army was defeated, he should
soon have another one on foot. The same intelligence was
communicated to the Duke of Parma, and by him to Philip.