ith a large number of gentlemen. The marshal had won
over the defenders of St. Felix, and he was just half a league from
Castelnaudary when he encountered the rebel army. The battle began
almost at once. Count de Moret, natural son of Henry IV. and Jacqueline
de Bueil, fired the first shot. Hearing the noise, Montmorency, who
commanded the right wing, takes a squadron of cavalry, and, "urged on by
that impetuosity which takes possession of all brave men at the like
juncture, he spurs his horse forward, leaps the ditch which was across
the road, rides over the musketeers, and, the mishap of finding himself
alone causing him to feel more indignation than fear, he makes up his
mind to signalize by his resistance a death which he cannot avoid." Only
a few gentlemen had followed him, amongst others an old officer named
Count de Rieux, who had promised to die at his feet and he kept his word.
In vain had Montmorency called to him his men-at-arms and the regiment of
Ventadour; the rest of the cavalry did not budge. Count de Moret had
been killed; terror was everywhere taking possession of the men. The
duke was engaged with the king's light horse; he had just received two
bullets in his mouth. His horse, "a small barb, extremely swift," came
down with him and he fell wounded in seventeen places, alone, without a
single squire to help him. A sergeant of a company of the guards saw him
fall, and carried him into the road; some soldiers who were present burst
out crying; they seemed to be lamenting their general's rather than their
prisoner's misfortune. Montmorency alone remained as if insensible to
the blows of adversity, and testified by the grandeur of his courage that
in him it had its seat in a place higher than the heart." [_Journal du
Duc de Montmorency (Archives curieuses de l'Histoire de France),_ t. iv.]

[Illustration: Henry, Duke of Montmorency, at Castelnaudary----199]

Whilst the army of the Duke of Orleans was retiring, carrying off their
dead, nearly all of the highest rank, the king's men were bearing away
Montnmorency, mortally wounded, to Castelnaudary. His wife, Mary Felicia
des Ursins, daughter of the Duke of Bracciano, being ill in bed at
Beziers, sent him a doctor, together with her equerry, to learn the truth
about her husband's condition. "Thou'lt tell my wife," said the duke,
"the number and greatness of the wounds thou hast seen, and thou'lt
assure her that it which I have caused her spirit