lrous courage, caused him to be acknowledged as
chief of the Protestant party; but Coligni was looked on by friends
and foes as the main pillar of their cause; and it was he that gave
organization to the volunteers who flocked around himself and the
prince, first at Meaux, and afterward in greater numbers at Orleans,
when toward the end of March they succeeded in occupying that
important city, and making it a centre of operations for the Huguenot
confederacy. Like Cromwell in after times, Coligni relied on the
religious enthusiasm as well as the natural bravery of his troops. He
exercised them by preaching and prayer as well as by drilling and
manoeuvring. He inspired them with his own spirit of austere devotion
to their cause; and the Huguenot army was in its first campaigns as
conspicuous for good order and morality as for valor; though by
degrees it became tainted with a tendency to marauding and to brutal
violence.

The Roman Catholic party now sought support from Philip II. of Spain,
from the Duke of Savoy, the emperor and other foreign princes of their
creed, and the Huguenots, to the deep regret of Coligni, were
compelled to strengthen themselves by similar negotiations. The
English queen, Elizabeth, promised succors in men and money, on
condition of Havre (which city, like most of the other strong places
in Normandy, was devoted to the Protestant cause) being placed in her
power as a security for repayment. The German Lutheran princes
permitted a large auxiliary force of lansquenets and heavy-armed
cavalry to be raised among their subjects in behalf of the French
Protestants; and Dandelot was despatched into Germany to place himself
at their head, and lead them across the Rhine; a difficult operation,
which he accomplished with great skill, and joined his brothers and
Conde at Pluviers, near Orleans, late in the year, and at a crisis
when the fortunes of the Protestant party appeared reduced to a very
low ebb, as in the interval which had elapsed since the commencement
of the war, though there had been no engagement between the main
armies, the Royalists had gained numerous advantages, and had captured
many towns, both in the South and in Normandy, which had originally
declared for the insurgents.

Coligni and Conde with their own troops and their German allies now
(December, 1562) marched upon Paris; but finding it hopeless to
attempt the storm or siege of the capital, they led their army toward
Normandy, de