tadel, and men were to speak of him yet once more before he passed from
the stage.

I return from this digression to the siege of Dourlens. The death of La
Motte made no difference in the plans of Fuentes. He was determined to
reduce the place preparatively to more important operations. Bouillon was
disposed to relieve it, and to that end had assembled a force of eight
thousand men within the city of Amiens. By midsummer the Spaniards had
advanced with their mines and galleries close to the walls of the city.
Meantime Admiral Villars, who had gained so much renown by defending
Rouen against Henry IV., and who had subsequently made such an excellent
bargain with that monarch before entering his service, arrived at Amiens.
On the 24th July an expedition was sent from that city towards Dourlens.
Bouillon and St. Pol commanded in person a force of six hundred picked
cavalry. Pillars and Sanseval each led half as many, and there was a
supporting body of twelve hundred musketeers. This little army convoyed a
train of wagons, containing ammunition and other supplies for the
beleaguered town. But Fuentes, having sufficiently strengthened his
works, sallied forth with two thousand infantry, and a flying squadron of
Spanish horse, to intercept them. It was the eve of St. James, the patron
saint of Spain, at the sound, of whose name as a war-cry so many
battle-fields had been won in the Netherlands, so many cities sacked, so
many wholesale massacres perpetrated. Fuentes rode in the midst of his
troops with the royal standard of Spain floating above him. On the other
hand Yillars, glittering in magnificent armour and mounted on a superbly
caparisoned charger came on, with his three hundred troopers, as if about
to ride a course in a tournament. The battle which ensued was one of the
most bloody for the numbers engaged, and the victory one of the most
decisive recorded in this war. Villars charged prematurely, furiously,
foolishly. He seemed jealous of Bouillon, and disposed to show the
sovereign to whom he had so recently given his allegiance that an ancient
Leaguer and Papist was a better soldier for his purpose than the most
grizzled Huguenot in his army. On the other hand the friends of Villars
accused the duke of faintheartedness, or at least of an excessive desire
to save himself and his own command. The first impetuous onset of the
admiral was successful, and he drove half-a-dozen companies of Spaniards
before him. But he had