We present this little siege as a monument of the feeling entertained
towards the infamous Catherine de Medici and her darling son, Henry
III., by many communities in France.
When Henry III. left Poland as a fugitive, to occupy the throne
made vacant by the death of Charles IX., he created Roger de St.
Lary-Bellegarde, one of his minions, a marshal of France. A short
time after his promotion, the new general was repulsed in three
assaults which he made upon Livron, a small Huguenot fortified place
in Dauphiny, although he attacked it with a good army, and it was
defended but by a few inhabitants. The women of the city thought him
so contemptible, that, to insult him, they plied their distaffs on
the breach. Henry, who passed near the city, stopped for a few hours,
to display his valour. The besieged, on learning his arrival, made a
general discharge of their artillery, which they followed by continual
hissings and hootings, accompanied by cutting railleries against the
monarch and the queen his mother. “Ha! ha! you massacrers! you shall
not poniard us in our beds, as you did the admiral! Bring us a few of
your laced, ruffled, and perfumed minions; let them come and look at
our women; they will see if they look like a prey to be easily taken!”
Henry ordered a fresh assault to be made, but it was repulsed by the
women only, and the siege was raised shortly after this disgraceful
defeat.