On learning that the Admiral was attacked, Condé, who had left Jarnac with the main body of the army that morning, turned back at once, and, after sending orders to the rest of his troops to follow him with all speed, hastened to his assistance, at the head of three hundred horse. “For,” says Le Noue, “he had the heart of a lion, and, whenever he heard that there was fighting, he longed to be in the thick of it.” On the way, he was met by a messenger from Coligny, who had sent to beg him not to make a useless effort, and to retreat. “God forbid,” he replied, “that Louis de Bourbon should turn his back to the enemy!” And he hastened on. On his arrival on the field, he found Coligny struggling against almost the entire Catholic army, and in danger of being surrounded. An immediate retreat would have been the wisest course, but to this the prince refused to consent, and drawing up the cavalry in a long line, with himself and his little band in the centre, he prepared to charge the dense columns of the enemy. A day or two before, his left arm had been badly crushed by a fall from his horse, and, now, as his helmet was being adjusted, his right leg was broken by a kick from the charger of his brother-in-law, the Comte de la Rochefoucauld. “You see,” said he, mastering the pain, “that mettlesome horses are of more harm than use in an army.” Those about him urged him to dismount, but he refused to leave the saddle, and, pointing first to his injured limbs and then to his standard, which bore the device: “_Pro Christo et patriâ dulce periculum_,” he cried: “Nobles of France, behold the moment so long desired! Remember in what plight Louis de Bourbon goes into battle for Christ and country!”[82] Then, with his three hundred horse, he threw himself on the Catholic cavalry and drove them back in confusion on the “_bataille_,” which the Duc d’Anjou led in person. But the charges of Coligny on the right, and Montgommery on the left, failed completely, and the prince’s little troop was soon assailed on all sides by overwhelming numbers. Condé’s horse was killed under him, and, impeded by his injuries, he was unable to mount another. His followers gathered around him and fought on heroically, but one by one they were cut down. Among these devoted men, d’Aubigné tells us, was an aged gentleman named La Vergne, who had joined Condé accompanied by twenty-five of his sons, grandsons, and nephews. “He and fifteen of his relatives were left dead on the field, all in a heap.”