ential service to the interests of Monsieur. It was
accordingly resolved that the Marechal-Duc should assume the command of
the vanguard, while Gaston placed himself at the head of the main body.
Montmorency was accompanied by the Comtes de Moret, de Rieux, and de la
Feuillade, who, after some slight skirmishes, abandoning the
comparatively safe position which they occupied, recklessly pushed
forward to support a forlorn hope which had received orders to take
possession of an advantageous post. M. de Moret, whose impetuosity
always carried him into the heart of the _melee_, was the first to
charge the royal cavalry, among whom he created a panic which threw them
into the utmost disorder; and this circumstance was no sooner
ascertained by Montmorency than, abdicating his duties as a general, he
dashed forward at the head of a small party to second the efforts of his
friend. The error was a fatal one, however, for he had scarcely cut his
way through the discomfited horsemen when some companies of Schomberg's
infantry, who had been placed in ambush in the ditches, suddenly rose
and fired a volley with such precision upon the rebel troop, that De
Moret, De Rieux, and La Feuillade, together with a number of inferior
officers, were killed upon the spot, while Montmorency himself fell to
the ground covered with wounds, his horse having been shot under him.
And meanwhile Gaston looked on without making one effort to avenge the
fate of those who had fallen in his cause; and he no sooner became
convinced that his best generals were lost to him than, abandoning the
wounded to the tender mercies of the enemy, he retreated from the scene
of action without striking a blow.[174]

As, faint from loss of blood, Montmorency lay crushed beneath the weight
of his heavy armour, he gasped out: "Montmorency! I am dying; I ask only
for a confessor." His cries having attracted the attention of M. de St.
Preuil, a Captain of the Guards, who endeavoured to extricate him, he
murmured, as he drew an enamelled ring from his finger: "Take this,
young man, and deliver it to the Duchesse de Montmorency." He then
fainted from exhaustion, and his captors hastened to relieve him of his
cuirass and his cape of buff leather, which was pierced all over by
musket balls. While they were thus engaged, the Marquis de Breze,[175]
who had been informed of his capture, hastened to the spot, and, taking
his hand, bade him be of good cheer; after which he caused him t