nding you of the
manner in which the late Prince of Conde was treated, inasmuch as it
touches you, Sir, and because it is a matter well known and free of doubt.
For his death has left to posterity an example of as noted treachery, bad
faith and cruelty as was ever shown, seeing that those, Sir, who murdered
him could not be deterred from the perpetration of so wicked an act by the
respect they owed to the greatness of your blood, to which he had the
honor of being so nearly related, and that they dealt with him as they
would have done with the most miserable soldier of the whole army."[661]

The Huguenot loss in the battle of Jarnac was surprisingly small in the
number of men killed. It is probable that, including prisoners, they lost
about four hundred men, or about twice as many as the Roman
Catholics.[662] But the loss was in effect much more considerable. The
dead and the prisoners were the flower of the French nobility. Among those
that had fallen into the enemy's hands were the bastard son of Antoine of
Navarre, Francois de la Noue, Soubise, La Loue, and others of nearly equal
distinction. Of infantry the Huguenot army lost but few men, as the
regiments, with the exception of that of Pluviaut, did not enter the
engagement at all. Coming up too late, and finding themselves in danger of
falling into the hands of the enemy's victorious cavalry, they evacuated
Jarnac, crossed to the left bank of the Charente, and, after breaking down
the bridge, retreated leisurely toward Cognac. Admiral Coligny, meantime,
upon whom the command in chief now devolved, diverged to the right, and
conducted the cavalry in safety to Saintes. The Roman Catholic army,
apparently satisfied with the success it had gained, made no attempt at
pursuit.

The Duke of Anjou entered Jarnac in triumph. With him was brought the
corpse of the Prince of Conde, tied to an ass's back, to be afterward
exposed by a pillar of the house where Anjou lodged--the butt of the
sneers and low wit of the soldiers.[663] In the first glow of exultation
over a victory, the real credit of which belonged to Gaspard de
Tavannes,[664] Anjou contemplated erecting a chapel on the spot where
Conde fell. The better counsels of M. de Carnavalet, however, induced him
to abandon a design which would have confirmed all the sinister rumors
respecting his complicity in the assassination.[665] The prince's dead
body was given up for interment to the Prince of Navarre, and found a
res