nd doubt impregnable, and the unpleasant fact
stared the prince in the face that, after leaving a sufficient force to
garrison it, the constable and Guise might still march out with an army
outnumbering his own.[206] On the tenth of December the Huguenot army
broke up its encampment, and moved in the direction of Chartres,
hesitating at first whether to lay siege to that city or to press on to
Normandy in order to obtain the needed funds and support of the English.
The decision was made in a few days to adopt the latter course, and Conde
had proceeded as far as the vicinity of Dreux on the river Eure, when he
found himself confronted by the enemy, who, enjoying the advantage of
possessing the cities and bridges on the route, could advance with greater
ease by the principal roads. The triumvirs, so lately declining battle in
front of Paris, were now as eager as they had before been reluctant to try
their fortunes in the open field. No longer having the King of Navarre
behind whose name and authority to take shelter, they desired to cover
their designs by the queen mother's instructions. So, before bringing on
the first regular engagement, in which two armies of Frenchmen were to
undertake each other's destruction, they had sent Michel de Castelnau, the
well-known historian, on the fifteenth of December, to inquire of
Catharine de' Medici whether they should give the Huguenots battle. But
the queen was too timid, or too cunning, to assume the weighty
responsibility which they would have lifted from their own shoulders.
"Nurse," she jestingly exclaimed, when Castelnau announced his mission,
calling to the king's old Huguenot foster-mother who was close at hand,
"the generals have sent to ask a woman's advice about fighting; pray, what
is your opinion?" And the envoy could get no more satisfactory answer than
that the queen mother referred the whole matter to themselves, as
experienced military men.[207]

[Sidenote: The battle of Dreux, December 19, 1562.]

On the nineteenth of December, 1562, the armies met. The enemy had that
morning crossed the Eure, and posted himself with sixteen thousand foot
and two thousand horse, and with twenty-two cannon, between two villages
covering his wings, and with the city of Dreux and the village of Treon
behind him as points of refuge in case of defeat. The constable commanded
the main body of the army. Guise, to rebut the current charge of being the
sole cause of the war, affected to le