eleven
cannon, three thousand wagons belonging to the reiters, and eight hundred
or nine hundred horses.[728] For a moment the court believed that the
Protestants were ruined, and that their entire submission must inevitably
ensue.[729] The Parisian parliament, in the excess of its joy, added the
third of October to the number, already excessive, of its holidays,
declaring that henceforth no pleadings should be held on the anniversary
of so glorious a triumph.[730] About the same time, in order to exhibit
more clearly the spirit by which it was animated, the same dignified
tribunal gave the order that the bodies of Francis D'Andelot and his wife
should be disinterred and hanged upon a a gibbet![731]

[Sidenote: Murder of De Mouy by Maurevel.]

[Sidenote: The assassin rewarded with the collar of the order.]

The Roman Catholics were, nevertheless, entirely mistaken in their
anticipations of the speedy subjugation of their opponents. The latter
were disheartened for a few days, but not in the least disposed to give
over the struggle. "The reformed were too numerous," a modern historian
well remarks, "too well organized, and had struck their roots too deeply,
to be subdued by the loss of a few pitched battles."[732] The prospect at
first was, indeed, very dark. It seemed almost impossible for the
Huguenots to maintain themselves in the region which for a whole year had
been the chief field of operations. As Anjou advanced southward, Partenay
was abandoned without a blow, and after occupying it he pushed on toward
Niort. Of this important place the intrepid De Mouy had been placed by
Coligny in command. Not content with a bare defence, he sallied out and
repulsed the enemy. But his boldness proved fatal to him. There was a
Roman Catholic "gentilhomme," Maurevel by name, who, allured by the reward
of fifty thousand crowns offered by parliament for the capture or
assassination of Admiral Coligny, had entered the Protestant camp with
protestations of great disgust with his former patrons the Guises, and had
vainly sought an opportunity to take the great chieftain's life. Three
years later that opportunity was to present itself in the streets of Paris
itself. Loth to return to his friends without accomplishing any noteworthy
exploit, Maurevel joined De Mouy, with whom he so ingratiated himself that
the general not only supplied him from his purse, but made him a companion
and a bed-fellow. As the Huguenots were returning to Ni