The Duke of Nemours, who, from his marriage with Anne of Este, widow of the murdered Duke Francis, was held in great respect by the Guises, commanded a body of volunteers composed of gentlemen attached to the court, who acted as a sort of light cavalry, and covered the king’s retreat. More than once Charles turned upon his pursuers and fought at the head of his gallant little body-guard. The constable, seeing the unnecessary danger to which he exposed himself, caught his horse by the bridle and stopped him, saying: “Your majesty should not risk your person like this: it is too dear to us to permit you to be accompanied by a troop of less than 10,000 French gentlemen.” But Condé with his five hundred horse could do nothing against the 6000 Swiss, who “stood fast awhile and then retired close, still turning their head as doth the wild boar whom the hunters pursue.”[392] The prince had lost his opportunity. While he was wasting time in an idle conference with Montmorency, whom the queen-mother had ostensibly sent to demand the cause of his arming, the Swiss were hurrying to Meaux with the utmost speed. His irresolution was a great mistake: he ought never to have made the attempt to seize the king’s person, or to have risked every thing to clutch the prize within his reach. His failure made him a traitor as well as a rebel, and inflamed the anger of Charles against the Huguenots more than success could have done.[393] In the latter case the king would, in spite of appearances, have found them to be loyal and faithful subjects, and would have had the best of evidence that in their hands neither his life nor his liberty were imperiled. As it was, he never forgave their attempt to seize him, and he swore with one of his usual blasphemous oaths, that he would some day be revenged on them. The Cardinal of Lorraine, knowing that he had little to hope for should he fall into the hands of the Huguenot chiefs, fled in another direction, losing his baggage on the road, and got safe to Rheims, where he entered into a traitorous correspondence with the King of Spain, offering to place several frontier towns in his hands, and support his claims to the throne of France in right of his wife.[394] But his plots were frustrated by the course of events.