s if he were a private soldier. It was indeed a
bold venture. True, the enemy, partly because of the confusion induced
by the reiters, partly from the rapidity of the King's movements, had
lost in some measure the advantage they should have derived from their
lances, and were compelled to rely mainly upon their swords, as against
the firearms of their opponents. Still, they outnumbered the knights of
the King's squadron more than as two to one. No wonder that some of the
latter flinched and actually turned back; especially when the
standard-bearer of the King, receiving a deadly wound in the face, lost
control of his horse, and went riding aimlessly about the field, still
grasping the banner in grim desperation. But the greater number emulated
the courage of their leader. The white plume kept them in the road to
victory and to honor. Yet even this beacon seemed at one moment to fail
them. Another cavalier, who had ostentatiously decorated his helmet much
after the same fashion as the King, was slain in the hand-to-hand
conflict, and some, both of the Huguenots and of their enemies, for a
time supposed the great Protestant champion himself to have fallen.

But although fiercely contested, the conflict was not long. The troopers
of Mayenne wavered, and finally fled. Henry of Navarre emerged from the
confusion, to the great relief of his anxious followers, safe and sound,
covered with dust and blood not his own. More than once he had been in
great personal peril. On his return from the melee, he halted, with a
handful of companions, under the pear-trees indicated beforehand as a
rallying-point, when he was descried and attacked by three bands of
Walloon horse that had not yet engaged in the fight. Only his own valor
and the timely arrival of some of his troops saved the imprudent monarch
from death or captivity.

The rout of Mayenne's principal corps was quickly followed by the
disintegration of his entire army. The Swiss auxiliaries of the League,
though compelled to surrender their flags, were, as ancient allies of
the crown, admitted to honorable terms of capitulation. To the French,
who fell into the King's hands, he was equally clement. Indeed, he
spared no efforts to save their lives. But it was otherwise with the
German lansquenets. Their treachery at Arques, where they had pretended
to come over to the royal side only to turn upon those who had believed
their protestations and welcomed them to their ranks, was yet