llinger, Sept. 1st, Baum, ii., App., 191; Hist.
eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 114, 115; Davila, bk. iii., 77; De Thou, iii.
355, 356.

[192] Letter of Beza to Calvin, Dec. 14, 1562, Baum, ii., App., 196. The
authority of Beza, who had recently returned from a mission on which he
had been sent by Conde to Germany and Switzerland and who wrote from the
camp, is certainly to be preferred to that of Claude Haton, who states the
Huguenot forces at 25,000 men (Memoires, i. 298). The prince's chief
captains--Coligny, Andelot, La Rochefoucauld, and Mouy--Haton rates as the
best warriors in France after the Duke of Guise. According to
Throkmorton's despatches from Conde's camp near Corbeil, the departure
from Orleans took place on the 8th of November, and the prince's French
forces amounted only to six thousand foot soldiers, indifferently armed,
and about two thousand horse. Forbes, State Papers, ii. 195. But this did
not include the Germans--some seven thousand five hundred men more. Ibid.,
ii. 196. Altogether, he reckons the army at "6,000 horsemen of all sorts
and nations, and 10,000 footmen." Ibid., ii. 202.

[193] Mem. de La Noue, c. viii., p. 602.

[194] The Protestants of Languedoc held in Nismes (Nov. 2-13, 1562) the
first, or at least one of the very first, of those "political assemblies"
which became more and more frequent as the sixteenth century advanced.
Here the Count of Crussol, subsequently Duke d'Uzes, was urged to accept
the office of "head, defender, and conservator" of the reformed party in
Languedoc. To the count a council was given, and he was requested not to
find the suggestion amiss that he should in all important matters, such as
treaties with the enemy, consult with the general assembly of the
Protestants, or at least with the council. By this good office he would
demonstrate the closeness of the bond uniting him as head to the body of
his native land, besides giving greater assurance to a people too much
inclined to receive unfounded impressions ("ung puple souvent trop
meticulleux et de legiere impression"). Proces-verbal of the Assembly of
Nismes, from MS. Bulletin, xxii. (1873), p. 515.

[195] Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 117; De Thou, iii. 357. Calvin's,
or the Geneva liturgy, was probably used but in part. Special prayers,
adapted to the circumstances of the army, had been composed, under the
title of "Prieres ordinaires des soldatz de l'armee conduicte par Monsieur
le Prince de Conde, accom