arrival before Dieppe, he found as governor there Aymar de Chastes, a
man of wits and honor, a very moderate Catholic, and very strongly in
favor of the party of policists. Under Henry III. he had expressly
refused to enter the League, saying to Villars, who pressed him to do
so, "I am a Frenchman, and you yourself will find out that the Spaniard
is the real head of the League." He had organized at Dieppe four
companies of burgess-guards, consisting of Catholics and Protestants,
and he assembled about him, to consider the affairs of the town, a small
council, in which Protestants had the majority. As soon as he knew, on
the 26th of August, that the king was approaching Dieppe, he went with
the principal inhabitants to meet him, and presented to him the keys of
the place, saying, "I come to salute my lord and hand over to him the
government of this city." "Ventre-saint-gris!" answered Henry IV., "I
know nobody more worthy of it than you are!" The Dieppese overflowed
with felicitations. "No fuss, my lads," said Henry: "all I want is your
affections, good bread, good wine, and good hospitable faces." When he
entered the town, "he was received," says a contemporary chronicler,
"with loud cheers by the people; and what was curious, but exhilarating,
was to see the king surrounded by close upon six thousand armed men,
himself having but a few officers at his left hand." He received at
Dieppe assurance of the fidelity of La Verune, governor of Caen,
whither, in 1589, according to Henry III.'s order, that portion of the
Parliament of Normandy which would not submit to the yoke of the League
at Rouen, had removed. Caen having set the example, St. Lo, Coutances,
and Carentan likewise sent deputies to Dieppe to recognize the authority
of Henry IV. But Henry had no idea of shutting himself up inside
Dieppe: after having carefully inspected the castle, citadel, harbor,
fortifications, and outskirts of the town, he left there five hundred
men in garrison, supported by twelve or fifteen hundred well-armed
burgesses, and went and established himself personally in the old castle