n a
general engagement before receiving the considerable accession of troops
of which he was in expectation, slipped away from Cosse, and though hotly
pursued by the enemy's cavalry, made his way to the friendly walls of La
Charite upon the Loire. Here he busied himself with preparations for
further undertakings, and was engaged particularly in providing his army
with a few cannon and mortars, of which he had greatly felt the need, when
activity was interrupted by a ten days' truce, dating from the fourteenth
of July, the precursor of a definite treaty of peace.[768] At the
expiration of the armistice, Coligny advanced, toward the end of July, to
his castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing, and distributed his troops in the
vicinity of Montargis, still nearer Paris. Marshal Cosse, at the same
time, moved in a parallel line through Joigny, and took up his position at
Sens, where he could at once protect the capital and prevent the Huguenots
from making raids in that fertile and populous province, the "Ile de
France," from which the whole country had derived its name. Leaving the
admiral and his brave followers here, at the conclusion of an adventurous
expedition of over twelve hundred miles, which had consumed more than nine
months, let us glance at the negotiations for peace which had long been in
progress, and were now at length crowned with success.

[Sidenote: Progress of the negotiations.]

[Sidenote: The English rebellion affects the terms offered.]

So true was it of the combatants in the French civil wars, that they
rarely carried on hostilities but they were also treating for peace, that
since the battle of Moncontour there had hardly elapsed a month without
the discussion of the terms on which arms could be laid aside by both
parties. Scarcely had the first startling impression made by the defeat of
the Huguenots passed away before Catharine de' Medici sent that skilful
diplomatist, Michel de Castelnau, to assure the Queen of Navarre, at La
Rochelle, of her personal esteem and affection, as well as of her fervent
desire to employ her influence with the king, her son, in effecting a
pacification based upon just and honorable conditions. Jeanne replied in
courteous language; but, while she insisted upon her own hearty
reciprocation of the queen mother's wish, she also expressed the suspicion
which all the reformed entertained of the sincerity of the leading
ministers in the French cabinet, whose relations with Spain and w