ed reluctantly to destroy, or render useless, and
abandon munitions of war of which he stood in great need; for the enemy
had taken the precaution to kill or drive away the horses, and the wagons
could not be dragged to Orleans, a distance of over twenty miles. It
happened that Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, whose instructive correspondence
furnishes so lucid a commentary upon the events from 1559 to 1563, was
travelling under escort of the royal train, to take leave of Charles IX.
at Bourges. In the unexpected assault of the Huguenots he was stripped of
his money and baggage, and even his despatches. Under these circumstances
he thought it necessary to accompany Coligny to Orleans. Catharine, who
knew well Throkmorton's sympathy with the Protestants, and hated him
heartily ("Yt is not th' Ambassador of Englande," he had himself written
only a few days earlier, "which ys so greatlye stomackyd and hatyd in this
countreye, but yt ys the persone of Nicholas Throkmorton," Forbes, ii.
33), would have it that he had purposely thrown himself into the hands of
the Huguenots. His confidential correspondence with Queen Elizabeth does
not bear out the charge. Despatch from Orleans, Sept. 9, 1562, Forbes,
State Papers, ii. 36, etc. Catharine assured Sir Thomas Smith, on his
arrival at court as English ambassador, that she wished he had been sent
before, instead of Throkmorton, "for they took him here to be the author
of all these troubles," declaring that Throkmorton was never well but when
he was making some broil, and that he was so "passionate and affectionate"
on the Huguenots' side, that he cared not what trouble he made. Despatch
of Smith, Rouen, Nov. 7, 1562, State Paper Office.

[160] Histoire eccles., ii. 296-306 (the terms of capitulation, ii. 304,
305); Mem. de Castelnau, liv. iii., c. xi. (who maintains they were
implicitly observed); Throkmorton, in Forbes, State Papers, ii. 41;
Davila, bk. iii., p. 71; De Thou, iii. 198, 199. "Bituriges turpiter a
duce praesidii proditi sese dediderunt, optimis quidem conditionibus, sed
quas biduo post perfidiosissimus hostis infregit." Beza to Bullinger,
Sept. 24, 1562, Baum, ii., Appendix, 194. M. Bourquelot has published a
graphic account of the capture of Bourges in May, by the Huguenots, under
Montgomery, and of the siege in August, from the MS. Journal of Jean
Glaumeau, in the National Library (Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. fr., v.
387-389). M. L. Lacour reprints in the same valuable pe