[214] For details of the battle of Dreux, see Hist. eccles., ii. 140-148; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. v.; De Thou, iii. 365, etc.; Pasquier, Lettres (Ed. Feugere), ii. 251-254; Guise's relation, reprinted in Mem. de Conde, iv. 685, etc., and letters subsequently written, ibid. iv. 182, etc.; Coligny's brief account, written just after the battle, ibid. iv. 178-181; the Swiss accounts, Baum, ii. Appendix, 198-202; Vieilleville, liv. viii., c. xxxvi.; Davila, 81, seq. Cf. letter of Catharine, _ubi infra_, and two plans of the engagement, in vol. v. of Mem. de Conde. The Duc d'Aumale gives a good military sketch, i. 189-205. [215] "Et non sans cause," says Abbe Bruslart; "d'autant que de ceste bataille despendoit tout l'estat de la religion chrestienne et du royaume." Mem. de Conde, i. 105. A despatch of Smith to the Privy Council, St. Denis, Dec. 20, 1562, gives this first and incorrect account. MS. State Paper Office. [216] H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 156. Le Laboureur, ii. 450. Catharine's own account to her minister at Vienna, it is true, is very different. "J'en demeuray pres de 24 heures _en une extreme ennuy et fascherie_, et jusques a ce que le S. de Losses arriva par-devers moy, qui fut hier sur les neuf heures du matin." Letter to the Bishop of Rennes, Dec. 23, 1562, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 66-68. [217] The Council of Trent, on receiving an account of the battle, Dec. 28th, offered solemn thanksgivings. Acta Concil. Trid. _apud_ Martene et Durand, Ampl. Coll., t. viii. 1301, 1302; Letter of the Card. of Lorraine to the Bishop of Rennes, French ambassador in Germany, _apud_ Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 70. [218] Sir Thomas Smith to Cecil, February 4, 1563, State Paper Office. [219] Same to same, February 26, 1563, State Paper Office. [220] For Marshal Saint Andre, who had once gravely suggested in the council the propriety of sewing the queen mother up in a bag and throwing her into the river, it is understood that the Medici shed few tears. Brantome and Le Laboureur, Add. aux Mem. de Castelnau, ii. 81. The marshal had been shot by a victim whom he had deprived of his possessions by confiscation. Ibid., _ubi supra_. [221] "Black devils," Guise calls them in a letter of Jan. 17th. "M. de Chatillon et ces diables noirs sont a Jerjuau." Mem. de Guise, 502. [222] Coligny had notified the English court of his intention early in January, and Cecil entertained high hopes of the result: "A gentleman is arryved at Rye, sent from the Admyrall Chastillion, who assureth his purpose to prosecute the cause of God and of his contrey, and meaneth to joyne with our power in Normandy, which I trust shall make a spedy end of the whole." Letter to Sir T. Smith, January 14th, Wright, Q. Eliz., i. 121.