etter to the Bishop of Rennes,
Dec. 23, 1562, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 66-68.

[217] The Council of Trent, on receiving an account of the battle, Dec.
28th, offered solemn thanksgivings. Acta Concil. Trid. _apud_ Martene et
Durand, Ampl. Coll., t. viii. 1301, 1302; Letter of the Card. of Lorraine
to the Bishop of Rennes, French ambassador in Germany, _apud_ Le
Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 70.

[218] Sir Thomas Smith to Cecil, February 4, 1563, State Paper Office.

[219] Same to same, February 26, 1563, State Paper Office.

[220] For Marshal Saint Andre, who had once gravely suggested in the
council the propriety of sewing the queen mother up in a bag and throwing
her into the river, it is understood that the Medici shed few tears.
Brantome and Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 81. The marshal
had been shot by a victim whom he had deprived of his possessions by
confiscation. Ibid., _ubi supra_.

[221] "Black devils," Guise calls them in a letter of Jan. 17th. "M. de
Chatillon et ces diables noirs sont a Jerjuau." Mem. de Guise, 502.

[222] Coligny had notified the English court of his intention early in
January, and Cecil entertained high hopes of the result: "A gentleman is
arryved at Rye, sent from the Admyrall Chastillion, who assureth his
purpose to prosecute the cause of God and of his contrey, and meaneth to
joyne with our power in Normandy, which I trust shall make a spedy end of
the whole." Letter to Sir T. Smith, January 14th, Wright, Q. Eliz., i.
121.

[223] How important a matter this was, may be inferred from the fact that
the Admiral took pains to dwell upon it, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth,
written two or three days before his departure: "Advisant au reste vostre
Majeste, Madame, que j'ay faict condescendre les reistres a laisser tous
leur bagages et empechemens en ceste ville (_chose non auparavant ouye_):
de sorte que dedans le dix ou douziesme de ce moys de Febvrier prochain au
plus tard, avec l'aide de Dieu, nous serons bien prez du Havre de Grace,"
etc. Letter from Orleans, Jan. 29, 1563, Forbes, ii. 319.

[224] "En cest equipage, nous faisions telle diligence, que souvent nous
prevenions la renommee de nous mesmes en plusieurs lieux ou nous
arrivions." Mem. de la Noue, c. xi. La Noue states the force at two
thousand reiters, five hundred French horse, and one thousand mounted
arquebusiers.

[225] "The 8th of that moneth" (February), says