"Some might attribute these things to blind fortune," says an honest
chronicler who had occupied important posts in the service of the prince
and of his cousin Lewis William, "but they who knew the prince's constant
study and laborious attention to detail, who were aware that he never
committed to another what he could do himself, who saw his sobriety,
vigilance, his perpetual study and holding of council with Count Lewis
William (himself possessed of all these good gifts, perhaps even in
greater degree), and who never found him seeking, like so many other
commanders, his own ease and comfort, would think differently."




CHAPTER XXV

War in Brittany and Normandy--Death of La Noue--Religious and
political persecution in Paris--Murder of President Brisson,
Larcher, and Tardif--The sceptre of France offered to Philip--The
Duke of Mayenne punishes the murderers of the magistrates--Speech of
Henry's envoy to the States-General--Letter of Queen Elizabeth to
Henry--Siege of Rouen--Farnese leads an army to its relief--The king
is wounded in a skirmish--Siege of Rue by Farnese--Henry raises the
siege of Rouen--Siege of Caudebec--Critical position of Farnese and
his army--Victory of the Duke of Mercoeur in Brittany.

Again the central point towards which the complicated events to be
described in this history gravitate is found on the soil of France.
Movements apparently desultory and disconnected--as they may have seemed
to the contemporaneous observer, necessarily occupied with the local and