itable Louis, after seven
thousand of his army had been slain, had swum naked across the Ems,
exclaiming "that his courage, thank God, was as fresh and lively as
ever," and had lost not a moment in renewing his hostile schemes against
the Spanish government. In the meantime he had joined the Huguenots in
France. The battle of Moncontour had succeeded, Count Peter Mansfeld,
with five thousand troops sent by Alva, fighting on the side of the
royalists, and Louis Nassau on that of the Huguenots, atoning by the
steadiness and skill with which he covered the retreat, for his
intemperate courage, which had precipitated the action, and perhaps been
the main cause of Coligny's overthrow. The Prince of Orange, who had been
peremptorily called to the Netherlands in the beginning of the autumn,
was not present at the battle. Disguised as a peasant, with but five
attendants, and at great peril, he had crossed the enemy's lines,
traversed France, and arrived in Germany before the winter. Count Louis
remained with the Huguenots. So necessary did he seem to their cause, and
so dear had he become to their armies, that during the severe illness of
Coligny in the course of the following summer all eyes were turned upon
him as the inevitable successor of that great man, the only remaining
pillar of freedom in France.

Coligny recovered. The deadly peace between the Huguenots and the Court
succeeded. The Admiral, despite his sagacity and his suspicions, embarked
with his whole party upon that smooth and treacherous current which led
to the horrible catastrophe of Saint Bartholomew. To occupy his
attention, a formal engagement was made by the government to send succor
to the Netherlands. The Admiral was to lead the auxiliaries which were to
be despatched across the frontier to overthrow the tyrannical government
of Alva. Long and anxious were the colloquies held between Coligny and
the Royalists. The monarch requested a detailed opinion, in writing, from
the Admiral, on the most advisable plan for invading the Netherlands. The
result was the preparation of the celebrated memoir, under Coligny's
directions, by young De Mornay, Seigneur de Plessis. The document was
certainly not a paper of the highest order. It did not appeal to the
loftier instincts which kings or common mortals might be supposed to
possess. It summoned the monarch to the contest in the Netherlands that
the ancient injuries committed by Spain might be avenged. It invoked the