leaders to follow him into Nismes.
A detachment of three hundred men was placed at his disposal. When once
the foremost were in the town, and had overpowered the neighboring guards,
the Huguenots obtained an easy success. The clatter of a number of
camp-servants, who were mounted on horseback, with orders to ride in every
direction, shouting that the city was in the hands of the enemy,
contributed to facilitate the capture. Most of the soldiers, who should
have met and repelled the Protestants, shut themselves up in their houses
and refused to leave them. In a few minutes, all Nismes, with the
exception of the castle, which held out a few months longer, was
taken.[746]

[Sidenote: Coligny encouraged.]

When Admiral Coligny, wounded and defeated, was borne on a litter from the
field of Moncontour, where the hopes of the Huguenots had been so rudely
dashed to the ground, his heart almost failed him in view of the prospects
of the war and of his faith. Two persons seemed at this critical juncture
to have exercised on his mind a singular influence in restoring him to his
accustomed hopefulness. L'Estrange, a simple gentleman, was being carried
away in a plight similar to his own, when, having been brought to the
admiral's side, he looked intently upon him, and then gave expression to
his gratitude to Heaven, that, in the midst of the chastisements with
which it had seen fit to visit his fellow-believers, there was yet so much
of mercy shown, in the words, "Yet is God very gentle!"[747]--a friendly
reminder, which, the great leader was wont to say, raised him from gloom
and turned his thoughts to high and noble resolve.[748] Nor was the heroic
Queen of Navarre found wanting at this crisis. No sooner had she heard of
the disaster than she started from La Rochelle, and at Niort met the
admiral, with such remnants of the army as still clung to him. Far from
yielding to despondency, Jeanne d'Albret urged the generals to renew the
contest; and, having communicated to them a part of her own enthusiasm,
returned to La Rochelle to watch over the defence of the city, and to lend
still more important assistance to the cause, by writing to Queen
Elizabeth and the other allies of the Huguenots, correcting the
exaggerated accounts of the defeat of Moncontour which had been studiously
disseminated by the Roman Catholic party, and imploring fresh assistance.

[Sidenote: Withdrawal of the troops of Dauphiny and Provence.]

As for Colign