genius and to bring into full display the peculiar powers and defects of
the two chieftains of Europe. Each might be considered to be still in
the prime of life, but Alexander, who was turned of forty-five, was
already broken in health, while the vigorous Henry was eight years
younger, and of an iron constitution. Both had passed then lives in the
field, but the king, from nature, education, and the force of
circumstances, preferred pitched battles to scientific combinations,
while the duke, having studied and practised his art in the great Spanish
and Italian schools of warfare, was rather a profound strategist than a
professional fighter, although capable of great promptness and intense
personal energy when his judgment dictated a battle. Both were born with
that invaluable gift which no human being can acquire, authority, and
both were adored and willingly obeyed by their soldiers, so long as
those soldiers were paid and fed.

The prize now to be contended for was a high one. Alexander's complete
success would tear from Henry's grasp the first city of Christendom, now
sinking exhausted into his hands, and would place France in the power of
the Holy League and at the feet of Philip. Another Ivry would shatter
the confederacy, and carry the king in triumph to his capital and his
ancestral throne. On the approach of the combined armies under Parma and
Mayenne, the king had found himself most reluctantly compelled to suspend
the siege of Paris. His army, which consisted of sixteen thousand foot
and five thousand horse, was not sufficiently numerous to confront at the
same time the relieving force and to continue the operations before the
city. So long, however, as he held the towns and bridges on the great
rivers, and especially those keys to the Seine and Marne, Corbeil and
Lagny, he still controlled the life-blood of the capital, which indeed
had almost ceased to flow.