It is needless for me to pause upon all the movements that
subsequently took place. They have met with historians more competent
to treat of military details than myself; nor would my own personal
narrative for several weeks, nay, for months, present many matters of
interest. No sooner had Angoulême capitulated and order been restored
in the town, than Monsieur de Blaye found means easily to procure the
money for his ransom, and paid me the sum of four thousand crowns,
which was certainly far more than I had ever possessed before in my
life. In the arrangements which had been made between myself and Moric
Endem, and which he communicated to the men as we engaged them, the
ransom of prisoners, it may be remembered, had been held apart as
belonging to the actual captors. Nevertheless, I determined to
endeavour, as far as possible, to attach the men to me by liberality,
and to show that I could recompense good service, in order that, if
necessity required it, I might be the more fully justified in
punishing bad conduct.
I accordingly called the men together as soon as I had received the
ransom of my prisoner; and explaining to them what I was about to do,
and the reason why, I divided the money into two equal portions, and,
having reserved one for myself, I again divided the other half into
two, whereof I bestowed one upon my good lieutenant, Moric Endem, to
whom I owed so much, and distributed the residue among the men who
accompanied me to the breach. The others, who had chosen to wait till
they saw me tried, looked a little foolish and mortified upon the
occasion, but acknowledged it was all just; and, to give them some
consolation, I bestowed ten crowns a man upon them out of my own
stock, only requiring that each two should provide themselves with a
small tent, and each five with a baggage-horse, and a boy to ride it.
After this was done, my next thought was to redeem the dagger which I
had left in the hands of the Jew; but the matter was somewhat
difficult to be arranged; for how was I to obtain the weapon without
going myself to Bordeaux, or without sending some one in whom I could
fully trust? I thought of Andriot, of whose honesty I felt as certain
as of my own; but then he was by far too illiterate and simple in his
nature to deal with so shrewd a personage as the Jew; and the specimen
which I had had of good Solomon Ahar's proceedings was not very well
calculated to increase my confidence in his probity. Although the
weapon might be considered as a mere gewgaw, yet I clung to the
thought of regaining it as speedily as possible with feelings which
some people will easily enter into. It seemed as if it were my
inheritance; it was the only thing I possessed of my father's; it was
the tie between me and past years. I meditated over this for some
time, without coming to any satisfactory conclusion; and at length
remembering that there were many other things to think of, I proceeded
to the bedside of young Martin Vern, to prepare him for removal on the
following day.
Since the extraction of the ball he had been daily recovering
strength. The great quantity of blood he had lost had in all
probability been the cause that no great fever had ensued; and he had
been able to lie and talk to me at various times during the preceding
day without any apparent inconvenience. I now found him still better;
and he heard that the siege of Angoulême was over, and that we were
preparing to make a retrograde movement, to attack the small town of
Pons, with apparent pleasure. He expressed himself perfectly willing
and able to be moved; but only desired to find a messenger to bear
intelligence of his state to his uncle, and to tell him in what
direction we were likely to proceed.
I instantly caught at the opportunity of communicating with the Jew
through Martin Vern; and, after consulting with the young man upon the
subject, and telling him the whole facts, the matter was very easily
arranged. Andriot was sent back to Bordeaux with a mere verbal message
concerning the movements of the army, but with a letter from me to the
merchant, which told him of his nephew's improved health, and of my
own wishes with regard to the Jew, and also enclosed both the receipt
which the worthy Solomon had given me, and the requisite sum for
redeeming the dagger.
Andriot by this time had nearly enough of military service, and was
not at all sorry to lay aside the cuirass and helmet. He did not even
affect to conceal that such was the case; but, at the same time,
begged that I would let him return and join me in the capacity of a
servant as before.
Early on the following morning we began our march for Pons; and that
city was besieged in form, the garrison expressing its determination
to hold out to the last extremity. They kept their word in the town;
the place was taken by assault; and for the first time I beheld the
most awful scene that war, always terrible, can display. Death, and
destruction, and cold-blooded massacre surrounded me on every side;
but, terrible as it all was, I had the satisfaction of contributing,
in some degree, to the cessation of the evil. One or two of the
officers joined with me; and we endeavoured, as far as possible, to
shelter even the officers and soldiers that surrendered.
This attempt was nearly vain, however; but it prepared the way for
more successful efforts when the pillage of houses commenced. To
prevent plunder was impossible, I found; but to stop massacre was less
difficult, and most of my soldiers were beginning to listen to the
repeated commands that they received, and form into some order, when,
suddenly, a girl rushed from one of the houses, pursued by a trooper
whom I had engaged at Barbazieux, and who had shown himself somewhat
slack in the combat and eager in the pillage.
Both the girl and the man heard clearly the orders I was in the very
act of repeating, to abstain from outrage, and, rushing forward, she
clung to my knees. The man darted on after her, swearing that he would
have his lawful prey; that the town was taken by assault, and nobody
should stop him. There was a large body of soldiers coming up at the
time under Monsieur de Boucard, and I knew that at that moment example
was everything. The man had the insolence to seize the woman by the
shoulder at my very feet; but my heavy double-edged sword was naked in
my hand at the instant, and his foul fingers had scarcely touched her
when his spirit went to its dark account.
"Rightly done, rightly done, Monsieur de Cerons!" cried Boucard,
turning partly towards his men and partly towards me. "The same
punishment for any one who commits such excesses."
The greater part of the town's people were saved, but four hundred of
the soldiery were massacred in cold blood; and I grieve to say, that
four hundred more were afterward slain when the citadel was taken.
There was every reason to believe that the castle had capitulated;
but, by some mistake, the assailants got in at once, and put to death
every soul they met with. I was not in the town at the moment that
this latter act took place, having been ordered to follow the Admiral
de Coligny with all speed towards Chauvigny, whither he had marched
some days before in pursuit of the Duke of Montpensier. I was ordered
to bear to him tidings of the fall of Pons; and a company of foot
soldiers was added to my band, so that we might afford at once a small
re-enforcement to his division of the army, and give him notice that
those he had left behind would soon be prepared to support him.
Various movements on the part of both the Catholic and Protestant
armies followed during the greater part of the winter and the early
spring of the ensuing year. The Duke of Montpensier collected his
forces in the neighbourhood of Chatelherault; and tidings spread
abroad that the Duke of Anjou, the king's brother, was coming down
with a great force, to put himself at the head of the Catholic armies.
Various disasters also befell different detachments of Protestant
soldiers making their way up from distant parts of the country, to
join the main body under the admiral and the Prince de Condé. The
Protestant leaders, however, did not suffer themselves to be daunted,
and still acted upon the offensive, harassing the enemy in continual
skirmishes, and prepared even to risk the event of a general battle.
In all these proceedings I had my share. I knew that all and
everything depended upon my own exertions and my own success; and,
daily becoming more and more habituated to the life I led, I suffered
no opportunity to pass of attacking any detached body of the enemy.
When I thought myself not strong enough to attempt any of the small
fortified towns or castles, soon found plenty of leaders who were
willing to aid me for a share of the plunder which was likely to be
taken. Thus I was scarcely ever out of the saddle; rarely two days at
a time without crossing my sword with an enemy; and never suffering
myself, by any ambition, to be led into the great mistake of
increasing the numbers of my band, it became rather a privilege than
otherwise to obtain admission into it.
Such exertions were not without their reward; for, though in the
course of the campaign I did not meet with any other such rich prize
as Monsieur de Blaye had proved, yet many a prisoner of less
importance was taken--several by my own hand; while a large quantity
of booty was obtained, especially after the gay and luxurious soldiery
of the Duke of Anjou began to arrive in the country.
On one occasion we took an immense quantity of baggage, belonging to
two or three noblemen of the court, in a village which they had
fortified for their own defence, so that the amount of fifteen
thousand crowns in money alone was divided between our troop and a
band of foot who had joined us in the enterprise. We had been told
that the Duke of Joyeuse himself was in the village; but if he was so,
he made his escape with the other nobles before we forced our way in.
Had I been able to capture him, indeed, I might have thought myself
deserving of the name which I had by this time acquired in the army,
of the "Fortunate Monsieur de Cerons." I was indeed, in many respects,
extremely fortunate; for I had escaped without any wounds that
deserved the name, except the pistol-shot in the arm which I received
at Angoulême; and in the month of February I had in my own private
store an accumulation of nearly six thousand crowns.
Not twelve months before I should have considered that fortune as
quite sufficient for all my wants and wishes through life; but my
feelings had changed; I desired more, far more. What was it that was
at my heart? Was it avarice? Oh, no! What was it, then? I cannot tell.
There was a hope, and an expectation, and a looking forward into the
future, that made me greedy without greediness, and aspiring without
ambition.
I must now return to speak for a moment of one whom I have not noticed
for some time. The progress of young Martin Vern was slow but steady;
and at the end of about a month or six weeks he was enabled to sit up
and walk about the camp. In a week more he could ride out with me on
horseback, when with no particular enterprising view I went forth to
reconnoitre the enemy or examine the country around. From his uncle he
had received no intelligence up to that period at which the Protestant
army was marching upon Saumur, being completely master of the country
between the Loire and the Charente. But a terrible storm was gathering
to the east, where the army of the Duke of Anjou was daily increasing
in strength, and moving rapidly towards us. A degree of ferocity, too,
was beginning to animate both parties. The Count de Lude attacked the
town of Mirabeau; received its surrender upon capitulation, and yet
ordered the greater part of the garrison to be put to the sword in
cold blood. The wrath and indignation of the Protestants now exceeded
all bounds, especially as La Borde and his brother, who were among the
first victims at Mirabeau, were universally loved and admired in the
army. No one felt their death more bitterly than the Admiral de
Coligny; and, swearing by all he held sacred that he would avenge
them, he refused all terms of capitulation to the town of St. Florent,
which he was then besieging, but gave the garrison notice to defend
themselves to the last, as beyond all doubt he would put every man to
the sword.
I was myself, at the time, marching forward with a large body of
troops towards Loudun; but I heard shortly afterward that the admiral
had too terribly kept his word. We came in presence of the enemy in
the neighbourhood of Loudun; and on the assembling of the whole
Protestant force, it was found that we were not much inferior in
number to our antagonists. But the weather had now become extremely
severe; and the Duke of Anjou not judging it prudent to risk a general
battle at that moment, retired, leaving us to take a little repose in
winter-quarters.
Some days before he retreated, however, I was at length rejoined by
the good youth Andriot, who bore a letter from Martin Vern, announcing
that he would speedily join us in our quarters. Andriot himself had
much to tell; for he had been at the Chateau de Blancford, and had
borne tidings of all my proceedings, as far as he knew them, to those
in whom he believed I was interested at my ancient home. He repeated
to me all the kind things that the boys had said; all the affectionate
words of old La Tour; and he told me how Louise's eyes had sparkled
when she saw him; how she had made him repeat over and over again
everything that related to me; and how she had wept to hear of my good
success, which the youth declared he could not understand at all,
though I understood it right well. He had taken care, he said, as far
as possible, to keep out of the way of the baron; but he was caught
the second day of his visit, and made his escape as fast as he could,
to avoid being beaten out with stirrup-leathers, which my worthy
cousin threatened highly.
The letter of Martin Vern gave but little intelligence of anything but
his own approach, and we looked anxiously for his arrival during three
or four days; at the end of which time, as I was sitting with his
nephew in my quarters at the little village of Troismoutiers, the good
merchant made his appearance, accompanied by a much more imposing
train of followers than he had displayed when I last saw him. His
first attention was of course given to his nephew; but, after embraces
and congratulations, he turned to me to speak on my affairs, and told
me that he had succeeded in one part of his mission, but had been
unsuccessful in another. The dagger, he said, he had not been able to
redeem, having found that my friend Monsieur Stuart had already
redeemed it when he heard how fortunate I had been in the army, with
the purpose of carrying it to me direct. This intelligence mortified
me a good deal; but the worthy merchant had consolation for me.
"I have seen your fair cousin," he said, "and a beautiful creature she
is. Not knowing whether there was anything private in your letter or
not, I delivered it to her as she passed through the room where the
baron kept me waiting; and the tidings that you gave her must have
moved her much, for she first turned so pale that I thought she would
have fainted, and then grew red again, and pressed your letter to her
lips, and thanked me a thousand times for bearing it. As she ran away
to read it, and I did not see her when I went back again to the
chateau, I feared that I should have no answer to give you; but the
servant who brought me, two days after, some bonds for the money that
your cousin wanted, gave me also this letter for you, and I think it
is in a woman's writing."
The moment I saw it I knew Louise's hand; and, approaching the sconce,
I tore it open and read--oh, how my heart beat! oh, how nearly were my
eyes overflowing as I read the sweet, the dear, the tender, the
affectionate words with which she greeted me.
"Dearest, dearest Henry!" it began, "how can I ever thank you for the
comfort, for the consolation, for the joy that your letter has given
me! the only consolation, the only joy that I have had since you left
me! I will not upbraid you for leaving me without bidding me adieu;
for to fly was all that you could do, and to go without farewell saved
me, perhaps, a long and bitter pang, even though it denied me a sad
and painful pleasure. The news of your success, from your own hand, is
indeed gratifying; but farther accounts of your success have now
reached me, and I trust in Heaven that they may be true.
"Oh, Henry! can I doubt anything that is told me of you, which
represents you as braver, and nobler, and more generous than any one
else? Perhaps it is all very foolish to think in this way; but you
have been my companion from my childhood; the kindest, the dearest,
the best of brothers to me! the one that I have loved the most on all
the earth since my poor mother's death. How, then, can I think
sufficiently of you? how can I think at all of any one else with hope
and comfort than of you? My two poor brothers, Charles and Albert, are
suffering under the same dark and cheerless fate as myself; and when
we steal up to sit together in the room that once was yours, we talk
of you and of all your kindness, and of the days that are gone by for
ever; and we mingle our tears together when we think that we may never
see him again whom we all loved so dearly. They indeed vow that, when
they are able, they will fly to join you at the army, and fight under
your sword. But what is to become of me?
"But I will not make you sad, Henry, with my sadness; nor will I dwell
upon all that is terrible to me, and painful in this house at this
moment. From the little that you saw, you may conceive the rest; and
nothing is too terrible to be true. Perhaps, if you were to write to
my father, it might do good; for, though he is very much exasperated
against you, and will not even hear your name mentioned from any of
us, yet when I have heard other people praise you, and mention some
high deed you have done, my father's eyes have looked bright, and I
have the thought he seemed somewhat proud that you should be his near
relation. Of his plans or his purposes at present I can give you no
account. He is evidently wretched here; and I have heard some words
spoken in regard to a journey to the capital if a truce or peace were
to take place, or if a safeguard could be obtained from the court.
When I see him so unhappy, I would fain console him, but he will not
be consoled; and the moment I attempt to do it, the expression of his
face changes from melancholy to anger.
"You tell me to think of you, and that you think of me constantly. Oh,
dear Henry! if you could see my thoughts, you could never fancy that
you were forgotten even for a moment by
"LOUISE DE BLANCFORD."
The worthy merchant had not been long with us before he was summoned
to the presence of the Prince de Condé, to whom his arrival had been
notified; and I was not allowed mere than a few minutes alone to dream
over the letter of Louise, when an officer from the admiral warned me
to have everything prepared to march before daybreak on the following
morning, for the purpose of attacking the Catholic army in its
retreat.
When morning came the admiral himself led the _avant garde_, while the
Prince of Condé followed at the head of the rest of the forces; and
I, with my own troop and another small troop which was placed under my
command for the purpose, was ordered to man[oe]uvre on the prince's
right, for the purpose of deceiving the enemy into the belief that we
were marching in three divisions. The task was allotted to me, because
it was well known that I had thoroughly reconnoitred the whole country
on that side during the three or four preceding days. The issue of the
attempt would have been more fortunate, however, had they attached me
to the admiral's division; for we were at that time in a part of the
country filled with Catholics, and I have not the slightest doubt that
both the generals were purposely deceived by their guides. Of the
admiral we saw nothing for a long time after his departure; and the
Prince de Condé, beginning his march about half an hour before
daybreak, was led straight on to the enemy's camp, instead of
approaching it on the north, as he had intended.
About eight o'clock in the morning, both he and I perceived the
position of the Duke of Anjou, strongly intrenched and flanked by a
stream, but not the slightest appearance of the admiral on any side;
and, from the whole aspect of the scene, the strongest proof that
Coligny had not even approached the enemy's camp. Notwithstanding the
great inferiority of numbers, however, the prince determined to
commence the attack, seeing clearly that the admiral had been misled,
and hoping that the sound of the cannon would bring him up to the
field of battle. The order was then given for the skirmishers to
advance; and, according to the directions I had received, I made the
greatest possible display of my forces on the right, occupying the
attention and diverting the efforts of a part of the Duke of Anjou's
army.
The troops that the Prince de Condé had thrown forward were met by the
cavalry of Souline, Monsalis, and La Vallette, and driven back for
some way at the point of the sword; but the famous Count de Montgomery
and several other distinguished officers caused the cannon to be
brought forward upon the height, and opened a sharp fire upon the
duke's encampment. Each party was animated by the same courage and
spirit; the troops on both sides were fighting under the eyes of their
most celebrated leaders; and the advantages of the day remained so
completely balanced, that if the admiral had come up in time, the camp
of the duke must have been forced, and his army in all probability
annihilated.
In the mean time, Martigue, at the head of three cornets of horse, had
come out to reconnoitre my strength; but it luckily so happened that
the small body of men which had been placed under my command in
addition to my own troop, consisted principally of horse arquebusiers,
and I contrived, by thinly lining the hedges with these soldiers
dismounted, while I filled up the gaps with my cavalry, to make my
force appear much larger than it really was. Martigue, who was an old
and experienced soldier, at first seemed to entertain great suspicions
of what was really the case, and advanced up the hill with a resolute
face, as if he had been determined to dislodge me.
Although I had no chance in contending with him, I determined not to
give way till I was forced; and, suffering him calmly to come
completely within shot, I ordered the arquebusiers to fire and then
spring upon their horses. This was done through the hedges with
considerable effect, several of the shots telling in the midst of
Martigue's own troop, and producing great confusion, while what seemed
to them a body of fresh cavalry appeared behind the hedges, and
decided their retreat. The shortness of the daylight at that period of
the year favoured not a little the Duke of Anjou; for, or the arrival
of the admiral, who had been led several miles out of his way, the day
was found to be too near the close for any farther advantage to be
gained.
Not a few difficulties and dangers, however, presented themselves to
the Protestant army when it contemplated a retreat, and the prince
determined to stop upon the ground he had occupied. Just as it was
turning dark, this resolution was notified to me by an officer, who
brought me also high praises from the prince, not for having fought
well, but for having avoided fighting. His orders now were to retreat
a little from the ground I occupied, to do my best to cover my right
flank, and to send him instant notice in case of attack, making what
head against the enemy I could, in order to give him time for
preparation. He would have sent me more men, he said, but the position
that both he and the admiral occupied was so hazardous that he could
not spare any.
My retreat was easily effected; but, as I came down the hill, I was
somewhat alarmed and surprised by seeing a large body of men moving up
in the dusk across one of the wide open fields of that part of the
country. In the dim twilight I could not distinguish anything farther
than that there must be two or three thousand men, with what seemed to
be artillery; and I was upon the point of sending off intelligence of
the fact to the Prince de Condé, when the sound of some bells, such as
they hang round the necks of the draught oxen, caught my ear, and made
me comprehend at once what sort of apparition this was. It proved that
a rascally guide, who had accompanied the attendants, camp followers,
and others who were bringing up the baggage, had misled this important
body also, and was guiding it direct into the midst of the Duke of
Anjou's men. An immense booty it certainly would have been to the
Catholics had I not fortunately met the mass of rabble horseboys,
suttlers, bad men, bad women, and baggage wagons that were thus
trooping on into the hands of the enemy. Approaching cautiously, that
I might be quite sure I was right, I called out as soon as I had
ascertained the fact, and commanded this great procession to halt. At
the very first word, the guide, it seems, would have fled; but the
leader of the party, who was a man of execution and an old soldier,
had entertained suspicions for some time that all was not right, and,
on the man's attempt to spur away, shot him through the head. As soon
as some explanations had taken place between myself and the rest, a
stratagem struck me, which I instantly proceeded to put in practice.
All the men who had just come up were very willing to put themselves
under my command; and, returning up the hill till I came within sight
of the lights of the enemy's camp, I formed an encampment there,
defending it as well as I could with carts and wagons. I then
collected together all the most likely varlets that I could find, put
my own men in command over them, and arming them to the best of my
power, prepared to defend that post in case of need, making sure that,
for an hour or two at least, I could completely cover the right of the
Prince de Condé. I despatched a messenger to him, however, to tell him
what had occurred, and to say that, if he thought fit, when he and the
admiral fired their cannon at nine o'clock, as was very customary, I
would do the same, as there was an old dismounted culverine in one of
the baggage-wagons, which would the more completely serve to impose
upon the enemy.
On his return the messenger told me the prince laughed heartily; and,
entering into the spirit of the thing at once, bade me follow out my
plan according to my own proposal. It took some time, indeed, to get
out the culverine, to place it in such a position that it could be
fired without danger, and to draw out a nail which had been driven
into the touchhole. This was all accomplished, however, before the
hour appointed; and no sooner was the gun fired from the quarters of
the Prince de Condé, than the admiral on one hill and I on the other
shot off our ordnance, doubtless much to the surprise, and somewhat to
the consternation, of the camp below.
Indeed, our position formed a scene altogether not a little striking
and beautiful; and somewhat imposing and majestic it must have
appeared to the enemy, who could see it all at once. I had gone forth
to fire the culverine myself, fancying that, what between its
antiquity and the quantity of powder with which it had been crammed,
in order to make the report the louder, it might do what it did not,
and burst under the operation. I then gazed, with feelings near akin
to awe, along the range of the camp, and the immense numbers of fires
lighted all along the lines to keep the people warm, blazing lightly
over a great extent of the opposite hill, and sweeping quite down
across the mouth of the valley where the Prince de Condé's division
remained, till the illumination was taken up again by the people who
were with me on those heights. There, too, at about the distance of
three quarters of a mile, were the fires and lights of various kinds
in the camp of the Duke of Anjou, while between that globe of flame
and the semicircle of fire that surrounded it on our side, there
remained a dark black ring, on which the struggle of the morning had
been carried on, and in which nothing was now to be seen but a single
lantern, or a torch wandering here and there, and seeking for the
wounded or the dead.
As I stood and gazed, the murmur of merriment which was kept up by the
varlets and the people of the little encampment behind me was carried
away by the wind, which blew strong from the northeast, and borne upon
its wings from the camp of the admiral came suddenly one of the
Protestant psalms, sung by several thousands of voices at once, and
sweeping mournfully but sweetly through the dark and solemn night. If
I joined not in the melody, I joined at least in the prayer that it
conveyed on high; and I was listening still with no small delight,
when the youth Andriot plucked me by the sleeve, and told me that
there was somebody who wished to speak with me in the encampment.
There was a meaning look in the youth's face--a mixture of joy and
archness which I did not at all understand; but I followed without
farther question to a tent which had been prepared for me, and towards
which he now led the way. There were lights within, and a good number
of people standing round it; and in drawing back the flap of the tent,
I saw a table laid out with a very splendid supper, which, as I
afterward found, had been prepared for the Prince de Condé, and who,
probably, that night went without. But that which surprised me much
more (for I was well aware that the whole provisions of the army were
with my part of the encampment) was to see a respectable-looking
elderly lady with her back towards me, and an old man with white hair
bending down to point out to her something in a book upon the table.
The little noise I made in entering did not disturb them; but my first
step in the tent caused the old man to raise his head, and, to my
inexpressible astonishment, I beheld good old Monsieur La Tour; while
the old lady, turning round, displayed to my sight the well-known
features of her who had been the faithful attendant of the former
Baroness de Blancford and her daughter for several years.