During the Huguenot war Dreux and its neighbourhood was involved in heavy fighting. In 1562 the first pitched battle was fought near the town, the Catholic Leaguers being led by Montmorency and François, Duc de Guise, and the Protestants by Coligny and Condé. Although the Catholics were successful, it was a closely fought battle, in which 4,000 perished, and both Montmorency and Condé were taken prisoners. When Henry of Navarre had become Henri IV., although still only recognized as King by a few of the provinces of France, he laid siege to Dreux in 1590, but retired a few miles northwards to Ivry, in the plain of St. André, on the approach of the Catholic army under Mayenne, numbering about 16,000. ‘My friends,’ said Henri, as he fastened on his helmet, ‘yonder is the enemy; here is your King; and God is on our side. If you should lose your standards, rally round my white plume: you will always find it in the path of honour and of victory!’ The fight began at ten in the morning, and in two hours the army of Mayenne was in full flight. THE ROAD TO CHARTRES Outside the town the journey across the great agricultural plain is continued. There are still no hedges between the strips of green and brown, sometimes broken by distant belts of woodland, going away to the soft blue horizons in heaving undulations. The first village passed is Marville-Moutier-Brûlé. One can see the high-pitched green roof and small spire of its eleventh-century church on the left. Le Boullay Mivoye, the next village, which also has a little twelfth to fifteenth century church, consists of a very compact collection of uniformly low thatched or green-tiled cottages and barns, practically surrounded by a wall, beyond which there is no sign of any habitation until the next village is in sight. Speeding southwards there appears right ahead on the horizon, at the end of a very straight perspective of road, an enormous building with two spires. There is nothing else in sight beyond a few low trees, and the stranger at once realizes that he is approaching a building of the greatest consequence. It is the vast Gothic cathedral of Chartres. On entering the town, by going to the right along the Rue de la Couronne, one reaches the Place des Epars, where the hotels are situated. (See town plan of Chartres on p. 67.) SECTION IV CHARTRES TO ORLEANS, 45¼ MILES (73 KILOMETRES) DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE Kil. Miles. =Chartres= to Allonnes =18= 11¼ =Allonnes= to Ymonville =10= 6¼ =Ymonville= to Artenay =23= 14¼ =Artenay= to Orleans =22= 13¾ NOTES FOR DRIVERS A straight road across the level plain of La Bauce, sometimes subjected to fierce rain storms. PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE