ce.
Every city was in the hands of their foes, and their movements were
encumbered with the presence of women and young children.

There was but one thing in their favour--their enemies naturally
supposed that, should they attempt to escape, they would do so in
the direction of Germany, where they would be warmly welcomed by
the Protestant princes. Therefore it was upon that line that the
greatest vigilance would be displayed by their enemies.

Before starting, Coligny sent off a very long and eloquent protest
to the king; defending himself for the step that he was about to
take; giving a history of the continuous breaches of the treaty,
and of the sufferings that had been inflicted upon the Huguenots;
and denouncing the Cardinal of Lorraine and his associates, as the
guilty causes of all the misfortunes that had fallen upon France.

It was on the 23d of August that the party set out from Noyers.
Their march was prompt and rapid. Contrary to expectation, they
discovered an unguarded ford across the Loire, near the town of
Laussonne. This ford was only passable when the river was unusually
low, and had therefore escaped the vigilance of their foes. The
weather had been for some time dry, and they were enabled, with
much difficulty, to effect a crossing; a circumstance which was
regarded by the Huguenots as a special act of Providence, the more
so as heavy rain fell the moment they had crossed, and the river
rose so rapidly that when, a few hours later, the cavalry of
Tavannes arrived in pursuit, they were unable to effect a passage.
The party had many other dangers and difficulties to encounter but,
by extreme caution and rapidity of movement, they succeeded in
baffling their foes, and in making their way across France.

On the evening of the 16th of September, a watchman on a tower of
the chateau of Laville shouted, to those in the courtyard, that he
perceived a considerable body of horsemen in the distance. A
vigilant watch had been kept up for some time, for an army had for
some weeks been collected, with the ostensible motive of capturing
Rochelle and compelling it to receive a royal garrison; and as, on
its approach, parties would probably be sent out to capture and
plunder the chateaux and castles of the Huguenot nobles, everything
had been prepared for a siege.

The alarm bell was at once rung, to warn the neighbourhood of
approaching danger. The vacancies, caused in the garrison during
the war, had been la