he immediate payment of one hundred thousand crowns,
promised as a first instalment on account of their wages, and were
resolved to go no farther without receiving it. The Prince of Conde had
but two thousand crowns to meet the engagement. In this new perplexity the
Huguenots, from the leaders down to the very lowest, gave a noble
illustration of devotion to their religion's cause. Conde and Coligny set
the example by giving up their plate to replenish the empty coffers of the
army. The captains urged, the ministers of the gospel preached, a generous
sacrifice of property in the common interest. Their exhortations did not
fall upon dull ears. Money, gold chains, silver, articles of every
description, were lavishly contributed. An unpaid army sacrificed its own
private property, not only without a murmur, but even joyfully. The very
camp-servants vied with their masters, and put them to shame by their
superior liberality.[478] In a short time a sum was raised which, although
less than what had been pledged, contented the reiters, who declared
themselves ready to follow their Huguenot fellow-soldiers into the heart
of the kingdom.[479] Well might an army capable of such heroic contempt
for personal gain or loss be deemed invincible!

[Sidenote: The march toward Orleans.]

And now, with feelings widely different from those which had possessed
them in the journey toward Lorraine--a movement too nearly akin to a
flight to inspire anything but disgust--the Huguenot soldiers, over twenty
thousand strong, turned their faces once more westward. Their late
pursuers, no longer seeking an engagement where the result might be worse
than doubtful, confined themselves to watching their progress from a safe
distance. As all the cities upon their route were in the hands of the
Roman Catholics, the Huguenots were forced to take more circuitous and
difficult paths through the open country. But the dispositions made by
Coligny are said to have been so thorough and masterly, that they
travelled safely and in comfort.[480] Not that the soldiers, dispersed at
night through the villages, were freed from the necessity or the
temptation to pillage;[481] for the poor farmers, robbed of the fruits of
their honest toil, frequently had good reason to complain that those who
had recently dispensed their own treasure with so liberal a hand were even
more lavish of the property of others. But they were far more merciful and
considerate toward their ene