GASPARD DE COLIGNI 169 nominally by the Constable Montmorenci and the Marshal de St. Andre, but in which the Duke of Guise was also present, marched for some days on their flank, till the two armies came into collision on December igth at Dreux, where the first battle of the civil wars was fought.' In this action, after many vicissi- tudes of fortune, the Duke of Guise secured the victory for the Roman Catho- lics, and Conde was taken prisoner. Coligni led the remains of the Protestant army back to Orleans ; whither the Duke of Guise, at the head of a largely re- cruited army, flushed by their recent victory, soon advanced, with the intention of crushing insurrection and Protestantism, by the capture of their stronghold. Coligni's situation now seemed desperate. His German mercenaries in ar- rear of pay, threatened to desert him ; the funds which he had been able to col- lect for the conduct of the war were exhausted ; and he was utterly unable to encounter the numerous and well-appointed forces of Guise. In this emergency he formed the bold plan of leaving his brother, Dandelot, with the bulk of the infantry to defend Orleans, while he himself led the cavalry and a few compan- ies of foot again to Normandy, and again attempted to avail himself of the English supplies of money and troops. In spite of the mutinous murmurings of the German reisters, in spite of the attempts which the Roman Catholic com- manders made to intercept him, Coligni executed his daring scheme. Havre was reached. The English subsidies were secured, and the rich and powerful city of Caen voluntarily placed itself in Coligni's power. Meanwhile Orleans had been well defended by Dandelot ; and the great chief of the Roman Cath- olics, the Duke of Guise, had died by the hand of an assassin. Some attempts were made to implicate Coligni in the guilt of this murder, but the Admiral in- dignantly denied the charge ; nor is there any ground for believing him to have had the least cognizance of Poltrot's crime. The death of Guise made a temporary pacification easy ; and the edict of Amboise, on March 19, 1563, by which a narrow and restricted permission for the exercise of the Protestant religion was allowed, closed the first war. This peace on the part of the Royalists was only a hollow and a treacherous truce. Fresh communications with Philip II. were opened ; and an interview took place in 1564 at Bayonne, between Catherine, her son Charles IX., and the Duke of Alva. There is every reason to believe that at that meeting the de- struction of the Protestants by craft or by force was concerted. The treaty of Amboise was now openly and repeatedly violated by the fanatic party of the French Roman Catholics ; and the Huguenots were again driven to take up arms in self-defence. Conde and Coligni advanced upon Paris, and fought on November 10, 1567, the sanguinary battle of St. Denys against the Royalist forces. The Huguenots were beaten, but Coligni rallied them, and marching toward the Meuse, effected a junction with fresh bands of German auxiliaries. The war now raged with redoubled horror in every district of France. Alarmed at the strength of the Huguenot army, Catherine tried and successfully exerted her powers of persuasion and deceit over Conde, and a second faithless peace, called the treaty of Longjumeau, was concluded ; but when the Huguenot
