By England's Aid; or, the Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604)Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
By England's Aid; or, the Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604)
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Historical fiction; Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648 -- Juvenile fiction
As soon as the charge was repulsed, Henry set his troops in motion,
and the battalia charged down upon the disordered cavalry of the
League. The lancers and cuirassiers were borne down by the impetuosity
of the charge, and Marshal Biron, rallying his troops, followed
the king's white plume into the heart of the battle. Egmont brought
up the cavalry of Flanders to the scene, and was charging at their
head when he fell dead with a musketball through the heart.
Brunswick went down in the fight, and the shattered German and
Walloon horse were completely overthrown and cut to pieces by the
furious charges of the Huguenot cavalry.
At one time the victorious onset was checked by the disappearance
of the king's snow white plumes, and a report ran through the army
that the king was killed. They wavered irresolutely. The enemy,
regaining courage from the cessation of their attacks, were again
advancing, when the king reappeared bareheaded and covered with
dust and blood, but entirely unhurt. He addressed a few cheerful
words to his soldiers, and again led the charge. It was irresistible;
the enemy broke and fled in the wildest confusion hotly pursued by
the royalist cavalry, while the infantry of the League, who had so
far taken no part whatever in the battle, were seized with a panic,
threw away their arms, and sought refuge in the woods in their
rear.
Thus the battle was decided only by the cavalry, the infantry taking
no part in the fight on either side. Eight hundred of the Leaguers
either fell on the battlefield or were drowned in crossing the
river in their rear. The loss of the royalists was but one fourth
in number. Had the king pushed forward upon Paris immediately
after the battle, the city would probably have surrendered without
a blow; and the Huguenot leaders urged this course upon him. Biron
and the other Catholics, however, argued that it was better to
undertake a regular siege, and the king yielded to this advice,
although the bolder course would have been far more in accordance
with his own disposition.
He was probably influenced by a variety of motives. In the first
place his Swiss mercenaries were in a mutinous condition, and
refused to advance a single foot unless they received their arrears
of pay, and this Henry, whose chests were entirely empty, had no
means of providing. In the second place he was at the time secretly
in negotiation with the pope for his conversion, and may have feared
to give so heavy a blow to the Catholic cause as would have been
effected by the capture of Paris following closely after the victory
of Ivry. At any rate he determined upon a regular siege. Moving
forward he seized the towns of Lagny on the Maine, and Corbeil on
the Seine, thus entirely cutting off the food supply of Paris.
Lionel Vickars had borne his part in the charges of the Huguenot
cavalry, but as the company to which he belonged was in the rear
of the battalia, he had no personal encounters with the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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