army to be got together. "What, pray, will you do," he asked, "with
the Swiss you are raising?" The answer was, "We shall find good
employment for them."

It is the failing of a hypocritical and lying policy, however able, that,
if it do not succeed promptly, a moment arrives when it becomes
transparent and lets in daylight. Even Conde could not delude himself
any longer; the preparations were for war against the Reformers. He
quitted the court to take his stand again with his own party. Coligny,
D'Andelot, La Rochefoucauld, La Noue, and all the accredited leaders
amongst the Protestants, whom his behavior, too full of confidence or of
complaisance towards the court, had shocked or disquieted, went and
joined him. In September, 1567, the second religious war broke out.

It was short, and not decisive for either party. At the outset of the
campaign, success was with the Protestants; forty towns, Orleans,
Montereau, Lagny, Montauban, Castres, Montpellier, Uzes, &c., opened
their gates to them or fell into their hands.

They were within an ace of surprising the king at Monceaux, and he never
forgot, says Montluc, that "the Protestants had made him do the stretch
from Meaux to Paris at something more than a walk." It was around Paris
that Conde concentrated all the efforts of the campaign. He had posted
himself at St. Denis with a small army of four thousand foot and two
thousand horse. The Constable de Montmorency commanded the royal army,
having a strength of sixteen thousand foot and three thousand horse.
Attempts were made to open negotiations; but the constable broke them off
brusquely, roaring out that the king would never tolerate two religions.
On the 10th of November, 1567, the battle began at St. Denis, and was
fought with alternations of partial success and reverse, which spread joy
and sadness through the two hosts in turn; but in resisting a charge of
cavalry, led to victory by Conde, the constable fell with and under his
horse; a Scot called out to him to surrender; for sole response, the aged
warrior, "abandoned by his men, but not by his manhood," says D'Aubigne,
smashed the Scot's jaw with the pommel of his broken sword; and at the
same moment he fell mortally wounded by a shot through the body. His
death left the victory uncertain and the royal army disorganized. The
campaign lasted still four months, thanks to the energetic perseverance
of Coligny and the inexhaustible spirits of Conde, both