tfully and with great gentleness of
language, wherein he could not pretend that there was any desire to pique
him or blame him. And whilst the prince staid in the camp, the duke
often dined with him. And forasmuch as on this day of the battle there
were but few beds arrived, for the baggage had been half-plundered and
dispersed, the Duke of Guise offered his own bed to the Prince of Conde,
which the prince would accept in respect of the half only. And so these
two great princes, who were like mortal foes, found themselves in one
bed, one triumphant and the other captive, taking their repast together."
[_Memoires de Francois de La Noue,_ in the _Petitot_ collection; 1st
series, t. xxxiv. pp. 172-178.]

The results of the battle of Dreux were serious, and still more serious
from the fate of the chiefs than from the number of the dead. The
commanders of the two armies, the Constable de Montmorency, and the
Prince of Conde, were wounded and prisoners. One of the triumvirs,
Marshal de Saint-Andre, had been killed in action. The Catholics'
wavering ally, Anthony de Bourbon, King of Navarre, had died before the
battle of a wound which he had received at the siege of Rouen; and on his
death-bed had resumed his Protestant bearing, saying that, if God granted
him grace to get well, he would have nothing but the gospel preached
throughout the realm. The two staffs (_etats-majors_), as we should now
say, were disorganized: in one, the Duke of Guise alone remained unhurt
and at liberty; in the other, Coligny, in Conde's absence, was elected
general-in-chief of the Protestants. At Paris, for a while, it was
believed that the battle was lost. "If it had been," says Montluc,
"I think that it was all over with France, for the state would have
changed, and so would the religion; a young king can be made to do as
you please;" Catherine de' Medici showed a facile resignation to such a
change. "Very well," she had said, "then we will pray to God in French."
When the victory became known there was general enthusiasm for the Duke.
of Guise; but he took only a very modest advantage of it, being more
anxious to have his comrades' merits appreciated than his own. At Blois,
as he handed the queen-mother her table-napkin at dinner-time, he asked
her if he might have an audience of her after the repast. "Jesu! my dear
cousin," said Catherine, "whatever are you saying?" "I say it, madame,
because I would fain show you in the presence of