es were paid, now made them tie handkerchiefs to their pikes to
show that they surrendered; but they fared no better than the rest.[724]
Others kneeled and begged for mercy of their savage foes, crying in broken
French, "_Bon papiste, bon papiste moi!_" It was all in vain. Of four
thousand lansquenets that entered the action, barely two hundred escaped
with their lives. Three thousand French, enveloped by Anjou's cavalry,
were spared by the duke's express command, but not before one thousand of
their companions had been killed. In all, two thousand French foot
soldiers and three hundred knights perished on the field, while with the
valets and camp-followers the loss was much more considerable. La Noue was
again a prisoner in the enemy's hands. So also was the famous D'Acier. His
captor, Count Santa Fiore, received from Pius the Fifth a severe letter of
rebuke for "having failed to obey his commands _to slay at once every
heretic that fell into his hands_."[725]

The battle of Moncontour, fought on Monday, the third of October, 1569,
was a thorough success on the side of the Guises and of Catharine de'
Medici. Compared with it, the battle of Jarnac was only an insignificant
skirmish. Although, under the skilful conduct of Louis of Nassau and of
Wolrad of Mansfeld, the remnants of the army drew off to Airvault and
thence to Partenay, escaping the pursuit of Aumale and Biron, the Huguenot
losses were enormous, and the spirit of the soldiers was, for the time,
entirely crushed.[726] The Roman Catholics, on the contrary, had lost
scarcely any infantry, and barely five hundred horse, although among the
cavalry officers were several persons of great distinction.

[Sidenote: The Roman Catholics exulting.]

[Sidenote: Extravagance of parliament.]

Fame magnified the exploit, and exalted the Duke of Anjou into a hero.
Charles himself became still more jealous of his brother's growing
reputation. Pius the Fifth, on receipt of the tidings, sent the latter a
brief, congratulating him upon his success, renewing his advice to make
thorough work of exterminating the heretics, and warning him against a
mercy than which there was nothing more cruel.[727] To foreign
courts--especially to those which betrayed a leaning to the Protestant
side--the most exaggerated accounts of the victory were despatched. A
"relation" of the battle of Moncontour, with which Philip the Second was
furnished, stated the Huguenot loss at fifteen thousand men,