Saint Bartholomews Eve | Page 9

sailors and
soldiers, long years of peace at home, and the spirit and energy of her
people--Elizabeth may appear a great monarch. To those who study her
character from her relations with the struggling Protestants of Holland
and France, it will appear that she was, although intellectually great,
morally one of the meanest, falsest, and most despicable of women.
Rouen, although stoutly defended by the inhabitants, supported by
Montgomery with eight hundred soldiers, and five hundred Englishmen
under Killegrew of Pendennis, was at last forced to surrender. The
terms granted to the garrison were basely violated, and many of the
Protestants put to death. The King of Navarre, who had, since he joined
the Catholic party, shown the greatest zeal in their cause, commanded
the besiegers. He was wounded in one of the attacks upon the town, and
died shortly afterwards.
The two armies finally met, on the 19th of December, 1562. The
Catholic party had sixteen thousand foot, two thousand horse, and
twenty-two cannon; the Huguenots four thousand horse, but only eight
thousand infantry and five cannon. Conde at first broke the Swiss
pikemen of the Guises, while Coligny scattered the cavalry of
Constable Montmorency, who was wounded and taken prisoner; but the
infantry of the Catholics defeated those of the Huguenots, the troops

sent by the German princes to aid the latter behaving with great
cowardice. Conde's horse was killed under him, and he was made
prisoner. Coligny drew off the Huguenot cavalry and the remains of the
infantry in good order, and made his retreat unmolested.
The Huguenots had been worsted in the battle, and the loss of Conde
was a serious blow; but on the other hand Marshal Saint Andre was
killed, and the Constable Montmorency a prisoner. Coligny was
speedily reinforced; and the assassination of the Duke of Guise, by an
enthusiast of the name of Jean Poltrot, more than equalized matters.
Both parties being anxious to treat, terms of peace were arranged; on
the condition that the Protestant lords should be reinstated in their
honours and possessions; all nobles and gentlemen should be allowed
to celebrate, in their own houses, the worship of the reformed religion;
that in every bailiwick the Protestants should be allowed to hold their
religious services, in the suburbs of one city, and should also be
permitted to celebrate it, in one or two places, inside the walls of all the
cities they held at the time of the signature of the truce. This agreement
was known as the Treaty of Amboise, and sufficed to secure peace for
France, until the latter end of 1567.
Chapter 2
: An Important Decision.
One day in June, 1567, Gaspard Vaillant and his wife went up to
Fletcher's farm.
"I have come up to have a serious talk with you, John, about Philip.
You see, in a few months he will be sixteen. He is already taller than I
am. Rene and Gustave both tell me that they have taught him all they
know with sword and dagger; and both have been stout men-at-arms in
their time, and assure me that the lad could hold his own against any
young French noble of his own age, and against not a few men. It is
time that we came to some conclusion about his future."
[Illustration: Gaspard Vaillant makes a proposal.]

"I have thought of it much, Gaspard. Lying here so helpless, my
thoughts do naturally turn to him. The boy has grown almost beyond
my power of understanding. Sometimes, when I hear him laughing and
jesting with the men, or with some of his school friends whom he
brings up here, it seems to me that I see myself again in him; and that
he is a merry young fellow, full of life and fun, and able to hold his
own at singlestick, or to foot it round the maypole with any lad in Kent
of his age. Then again, when he is talking with his mother, or giving
directions in her name to the French labourers, I see a different lad,
altogether: grave and quiet, with a gentle, courteous way, fit for a
young noble ten years his senior. I don't know but that between us,
Gaspard, we have made a mess of it; and that it might have been better
for him to have grown up altogether as I was, with no thought or care
save the management of his farm, with a liking for sport and fun, when
such came in his way."
"Not at all, not at all," Gaspard Vaillant broke in hastily, "we have
made a fine man of him, John; and it seems to me that he possesses the
best qualities of both our races. He is frank and hearty, full of life and
spirits when, as you say,