o
go with him, and I can believe that he would give his life for him;
but for all that, if you had to depend upon him for your meals, you
would fare badly, indeed."

De la Noue was much disappointed, on joining the Prince, at finding
that the latter's force had not swollen to larger dimensions. He
had with him, after the arrival of the force the Count had brought
from the west, but two thousand horse. Of these a large proportion
were gentlemen, attended only by a few personal retainers. A fifth
only were provided with lances, and a large number had no defensive
armour. Of foot soldiers he had about the same number as of horse,
and of these about half were armed with arquebuses, the rest being
pikemen.

The force under the command of the Constable de Montmorency, inside
the walls of Paris, was known to be enormously superior in
strength; and the Huguenots were unable to understand why he did
not come out to give them battle. They knew, however, that Count
Aremberg was on his way from the Netherlands, with seventeen
hundred horse, sent by the Duke of Alva to the support of the
Catholics; and they supposed that Montmorency was waiting for this
reinforcement.

On the 9th of November news arrived that Aremberg was approaching,
and D'Andelot, with five hundred horse and eight hundred of the
best-trained arquebusiers, was despatched to seize Poissy, and so
prevent Aremberg entering Paris.

The next morning the Constable, learning that Conde had weakened
his army by this detachment, marched out from Paris. Seldom have
two European armies met with a greater disparity of numbers; for
while Conde had but fifteen hundred horse and twelve hundred foot,
the Constable marched out with sixteen thousand infantry, of whom
six thousand were Swiss, and three thousand horse. He had eighteen
pieces of artillery, while Conde was without a single cannon.

As soon as this force was seen pouring out from the gates of Paris,
the Huguenot trumpets blew to arms. All wore over their coats or
armour a white scarf, the distinguishing badge of the Huguenots;
and the horsemen were divided into three bodies. De la Noue and his
following formed part of that under the personal command of Conde.

"We longed to be here in time for this battle, Philip," Francois
said; "but I think this is rather more than we bargained for. They
must be nearly ten to one against us. There is one thing: although
the Swiss are good soldiers, the rest of their infantry a