ort, the traitor
found the conjuncture he desired. Chancing to be left alone with De Mouy,
he drew a pistol and shot him in the loins; then putting spurs to his
horse, reached with ease the advancing columns of Anjou. De Mouy was taken
back to Niort mortally wounded. His friends, contrary to his earnest
desire, insisted on taking him by boat down the Sevre to La Rochelle,
where he died. Meanwhile Niort, in discouragement, surrendered to the
Roman Catholic army.[733] The assassin was well rewarded. A letter is
extant, written by Charles the Ninth to the Duke of Anjou, from
Plessis-lez-Tours, on the tenth of October, 1569, in which the king begs
his brother to confer on "Charles de Louvier, sieur de Moureveil, being
the person who killed Mouy," the collar of the royal order of Saint
Michael, to which he had been elected by the knights companions, as a
reward for "his signal service;" and to see that he receive from the city
of Paris a present commensurate with his merits![734]

[Sidenote: Fatal error of the court.]

Catharine de' Medici and the Cardinal of Lorraine came from Tours, where
they had been watching the course of the war, Niort, and the plan of
future operations was discussed in their presence. Almost every place of
importance previously held by the Huguenots toward the north and east of
La Rochelle had fallen, even to the almost impregnable Lusignan. Saint
Jean d'Angely, on the Boutonne, was the only remaining outwork, whose
capture must precede an attack on the citadel itself. Should the
victorious army of the king lay siege to Saint Jean d'Angely, or should it
continue the pursuit of Coligny and the princes, who, in order to divert
it from the undertaking, had retired from Saint Jean d'Angely to Saintes,
and thence, not long after, in the direction of Montauban? This was the
question that demanded an instant answer. Jean de Serres informs us that
the Protestant leaders were extremely anxious that their enemies should
adopt the latter course;[735] yet the best military authorities on both
sides declare without hesitation that the failure of the Roman Catholics
to follow it was the one capital error that saved the Huguenots, perhaps,
from utter destruction. "Hundreds of times have I been amazed," says the
Roman Catholic Blaise de Montluc, "that so many great and wise captains
who were with Monsieur (the Duke of Anjou) should have adopted the bad
plan of laying sieges, instead of pursuing the princes, who were