[173] It was undoubtedly a Roman Catholic fabrication, that Montgomery bore on his escutcheon _a helmet pierced by a lance_ (un heaume perce d'une lance), in allusion to the accident by which he had given Henry the Second his mortal wound, in the joust at the Tournelles. Abbe Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 97, who, however, characterizes it as "chose fort dure a croire." [174] Mem. de la Noue, c. viii. [175] When Lord Robert Dudley began to break to the queen the disheartening news that Rouen had fallen, Elizabeth betrayed "a marvellous remorse that she had not dealt more frankly for it," and instead of exhibiting displeasure at Poynings's presumption, seemed disposed to blame him that he had not sent a thousand men instead, for his fault would have been no greater. Dudley to Cecil, Oct. 30, 1562, Forbes, State Papers, ii. 155. [176] De Thou, iii. 328; Froude, vii. 436; Sir Thomas Smith to Throkmorton, Paris, Oct. 17, 1562, Forbes, State Papers, ii. 117. [177] "But thei will have there preaching still. Thei will have libertie of their religion, and thei will have no garrison wythin the towne, but will be masters therof themselves: and upon this point thei stand." Despatch of Sir Thomas Smith, Poissy, Oct. 20, 1562, Forbes, State Papers, ii. 123. [178] The plundering lasted eight days. While the Swiss obeyed orders, and promptly desisted, "the French suffered themselves to be killed rather than quit the place whilst there was anything left." Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 13. The _cure_ of Meriot waxes jocose over the incidents of the capture: "Tout ce qui fut trouve en armes par les rues et sur les murailles fut passe par le fil de l'espee. La ville fut mise au pillage par les soldatz du camp, qui se firent gentis compaignons. _Dieu scait que ceux qui estoient mal habillez pour leur yver_ (hiver) _ne s'en allerent sans robbe neufve._ Les huguenotz de la ville furent en tout maltraictez," etc. Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 288. [179] On the siege of Rouen, see the graphic account of De Thou, iii. (liv. xxxiii.) 328-335; the copious correspondence of the English envoys in France, Forbes, State Papers, vol. ii.; the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., ii. 389-396 (and Marlorat's examination and sentence _in extenso_, 398-404); J. de Serres, ii. 259; La Noue, c. viii.; Davila (interesting, and not so inaccurate here as usual, perhaps because he had a brother-in-law, Jean de Hemery, sieur de Villers, in the Roman Catholic army, but who greatly exaggerates the Huguenot forces), ch. iii. 73-75; Castelnau, liv. iii., c. 13.