e drove back the foremost of the Roman
Catholics, but was soon overpowered and taken prisoner. His men were
thrown in disorder upon D'Andelot, who, by an almost superhuman effort,
not only sustained the shock, but retook and for a short time held the
abbey. D'Andelot was, however, in turn forced to yield the ground.

Meantime Coligny had called upon Conde for assistance, and the prince,
leaving his infantry to follow, had hurried back with the few horse that
were within reach, and now took position on the left. But it was
impossible for so unequal a struggle to continue long. The Huguenots were
outflanked and almost enclosed between their adversaries and the Charente.
It was a time for desperate and heroic venture. Coligny's forces had lost
the ground which they had been contesting inch by inch about a raised
causeway.

Conde himself had but three hundred knights. One of his arms he carried in
a sling, because of a recent injury. To render his condition yet more
deplorable, his thigh had just been broken, as he rode up, by a kick from
the unmanageable horse of his brother-in-law, La Rochefoucauld. The
prince was no coward. Turning to his little company of followers, he
exclaimed: "My friends, true noblesse of France, here is the opportunity
we have long wished for in vain! Our God is the God of Battles. He loves
to be so called. He always declares Himself for the right, and never fails
to succor those who serve Him. He will infallibly protect us, if, after
having taken up arms for the liberty of our consciences, we put all our
hope in Him. Come and let us complete what the first charges have begun;
and remember in what a state Louis of Bourbon entered into the combat for
Christ and for his native land!" Thus having spoken, he bent forward, and,
at the head of his devoted band, and under an ensign bearing for device
the figure of the Roman hero Marcus Curtius and the singularly appropriate
motto, "Doux le peril pour Christ et le Pays," he dashed upon a hostile
battalion eight hundred strong.[652]

[Sidenote: Death of Louis, Prince of Conde.]

The conflict was, in the judgment of that scarred old Huguenot warrior,
Agrippa d'Aubigne, the sharpest and most obstinate in all the civil
wars.[653] At last Conde's horse was killed under him, and the prince was
unable to extricate himself. The day was evidently lost, and Conde,
calling two of the enemies' knights with whom he was acquainted, and the
life of one of whom he had