The affair mentioned in the text was a mere skirmish. Montbrun was engaged in hot pursuit of the King’s troops, whom he had defeated a few days before (see page 78), when a daring attempt was made by a party of the royal cavalry to seize the bridge of Gervane, and cut off his retreat. Though he had only a small force in hand, he charged the enemy, but finding himself outnumbered was compelled to retreat. His horse fell in trying to leap a ditch, and he was taken prisoner. Busbecq’s account shows that the affair was represented in Paris as a decisive victory. Compare Thuanus, iii. 94, who also states that Montbrun was the first to raise the Huguenot standard after Saint Bartholomew. D’Aubigné (_Histoire_, vol. ii. bk. ii. ch. ix.) says he will give him no eulogy except the title La Noue conferred upon him—to wit, the Valiant Montbrun. [81] The King, however, was at the entertainment. ‘A ces nopces se trouvèrent le duc de Lorraine et MM. de Guise, avec la pluspart des princes et seingneurs, qui lors estoient à la Cour, et y dansa le Roy tout du long du jour, en grande allégresse.’—_De l’Estoile_, i. 82. [82] Louis Gonzaga, Duc de Nevers, third son of Frederick II., Duke of Mantua, was born in 1539, and was brought up in France with Henry II.’s children. He had a horse killed under him at St. Quentin, was taken prisoner, and was ransomed for 60,000 crowns. In 1565 he married Henriette de Clèves, the sister of the two last Ducs de Nevers, and of Catherine de Clèves, wife of the Duke of Guise, and was created Duc de Nevers. In 1567 he became Governor of the French possessions in Piedmont, and protested strongly against their cession by Henry III. (_Mémoires_, i. 1). He was deeply implicated in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. A partisan of the Guises at the beginning of the League, he afterwards went over to Henry III. At the death of the latter, he at first assumed an attitude of neutrality between the League and Henry IV., but soon espoused the royal cause. He died in 1595. [83] See note 2, page 53. [84] See note, p. 36. [85] The Fregosi were one of the four great plebeian families of Genoa, and gave many Doges to the Republic. Mario de Birague was sent as ambassador to Genoa in the summer of 1574, and John Galeazzo Fregoso commanded the two galleys of the said ambassador. Both were received with great joy at Genoa, though Fregoso was a banished citizen. Charrière, _Négotiations de la France dans le Levant_, iii. 609. For a full account of the disturbances at Genoa see _Thuanus_, iii. 113-128.