capturing a part of the suburbs, and in reducing the garrison
to great straits for food; but they were met with great determination, and
with a singular fertility of expedient. The Count de Lude was the royal
governor. Henry, Duke of Guise (son of the nobleman assassinated near
Orleans in 1563), with his brother Charles, Duke of Mayenne, and other
good captains, had thrown himself into Poitiers two days before Coligny
made his appearance. It was Guise's first opportunity to prove to the
world that he had inherited his father's military genius; and the glory of
success principally accrued to him. He met the assailants in the breach,
and contested every inch of ground. Their progress was obstructed by
chevaux-de-frise and other impediments. Boiling oil was poured upon them
from the walls. Burning hoops were adroitly thrown over their heads. Pitch
and other inflammable substances fell like rain upon their advancing
columns. They were not even left unmolested in their camp. A dam was
constructed on the river Clain, and the inundation spread to the Huguenot
quarters. To these difficulties raised by man were added the ravages of
disease. Many of the Huguenot generals, and the admiral himself, were
disabled, and the mortality was great among the private soldiers.

In spite of every obstacle, however, it seemed probable that Coligny would
carry the day. "The admiral's power exceedeth the king's," wrote Cecil to
Nicholas White: "he is sieging of Poitiers, the winning or losing whereof
will make an end of the cause. He is entered within the town by assault,
but the Duke of Guise, etc., are entrenched in a stronger part of the
town; and without the king give a battle, it is thought that he cannot
escape from the admiral."[707] Just at this moment, the Duke of Anjou,
assembling the remnants of his forces, appeared before Chatellerault; and
the peril to the Huguenot city seemed so imminent, that Coligny was
compelled to raise the siege of Poitiers, on the ninth of September, and
hasten to its relief. Seven weeks of precious time had been lost, and more
than two thousand lives had been sacrificed by the Huguenots in this
ill-advised undertaking. The besieged lost but three or four hundred
men.[708] Great was the delight manifested in Paris, where, during the
prevalence of the siege, solemn processions had gone from Notre Dame to
the shrine of Sainte Genevieve, to implore the intercession of the patron
of the city in behalf of Poitiers.