n of so determined an enemy of the worship of that sacred emblem.
While Coligny's escutcheon was dragged in dishonor through the streets by
four horses, the hangman amused the mob by giving to his effigy the
traditional tooth-pick, which he was said to be in the habit of
continually using--a facetious trait which the curate of St. Barthelemi,
of course, does not forget to insert in his brief diary.[718]
Nevertheless, that the decree of parliament setting a price upon the
admiral's head was no child's play, appeared about this time from the
abortive plot of one Dominique d'Albe, who confessed that he had been
hired to poison the Huguenot chief, and was hanged by order of the
princes.[719] Nor was it without practical significance that the decree
itself had been translated into Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, Flemish,
English, and Scotch, and scattered broadcast through Europe by the
partisans of Guise.

[Sidenote: The Huguenots weakened.]

Meantime the condition of the rival armies in western France promised
again, in the view of the court, a speedy solution of the military
problem. The Duke of Anjou had of late been heavily reinforced. With the
old troops that had returned to his standard, and the new troops that
poured in upon him, he had a well-appointed army of about twenty-seven
thousand men, of whom one-third were cavalry. Coligny, on the contrary,
had been so weakened by his losses at the siege of Poitiers, and by the
desertion of those whom disappointment at the delays and the expense of
the service had rendered it impossible to retain, that he was inferior to
his antagonist by nine or ten thousand men. He had only eleven or twelve
thousand foot and six thousand horse.[720] The Roman Catholic general
resolved to employ his preponderance of forces in striking a decisive
blow. This appeared the more desirable, since it was known that Montgomery
was returning from the reduction of Bearn, bringing with him six or seven
thousand veterans--an addition to the Huguenot army that would nearly
restore the equilibrium.

Leaving Chinon, where he had been for some time strengthening himself, the
Duke of Anjou crossed the swollen river Vienne, on the twenty-sixth of
September, and started in pursuit of the Huguenots. Coligny had been
resting his army at Faye, a small town about midway between Chinon and
Chatellerault. It was here that the attempt upon his life, to which
allusion has just been made, was discovered. And it wa