siring to form a junction with the English troops at
Havre. The Royal forces, commanded nominally by the Constable
Montmorenci and the Marechal de St. Andre, but in which the Duke of
Guise was also present, marched for some days on their flank, till the
two armies came into collision on December 19th at Dreux, where the
first battle of the civil wars was fought. In this action, after many
vicissitudes of fortune, the Duke of Guise secured the victory for the
Roman Catholics, and Conde was taken prisoner. Coligni led the remains
of the Protestant army back to Orleans; whither the Duke of Guise, at
the head of a largely recruited army, flushed by their recent victory,
soon advanced, with the intention of crushing insurrection and
Protestantism, by the capture of their stronghold.

Coligni's situation now seemed desperate. His German mercenaries in
arrear of pay, threatened to desert him; the funds which he had been
able to collect for the conduct of the war were exhausted; and he was
utterly unable to encounter the numerous and well-appointed forces of
Guise. In this emergency he formed the bold plan of leaving his
brother, Dandelot, with the bulk of the infantry to defend Orleans,
while he himself led the cavalry and a few companies of foot again to
Normandy, and again attempted to avail himself of the English supplies
of money and troops. In spite of the mutinous murmurings of the German
reisters, in spite of the attempts which the Roman Catholic commanders
made to intercept him, Coligni executed his daring scheme. Havre was
reached. The English subsidies were secured, and the rich and powerful
city of Caen voluntarily placed itself in Coligni's power. Meanwhile
Orleans had been well defended by Dandelot; and the great chief of the
Roman Catholics, the Duke of Guise, had died by the hand of an
assassin. Some attempts were made to implicate Coligni in the guilt of
this murder, but the Admiral indignantly denied the charge; nor is
there any ground for believing him to have had the least cognizance of
Poltrot's crime.

The death of Guise made a temporary pacification easy; and the edict
of Amboise, on March 19, 1563, by which a narrow and restricted
permission for the exercise of the Protestant religion was allowed,
closed the first war.

This peace on the part of the Royalists was only a hollow and a
treacherous truce. Fresh communications with Philip II. were opened;
and an interview took place in 1564 at Bayonne, bet