Froissart says so much of his host’s _perfection in everything_ that a false impression of the man might be gained if some rather ugly facts were not known concerning him. In a moment of passion he stabbed Pierre de Béarn, Governor of Lourdes, who was either his brother or cousin, because he refused to give up the castle of Lourdes, and he also murdered his own son Gaston. The wife of Gaston Phœbus was living at Pamplona, after having become estranged from her husband, and while her son was visiting her, Charles the Bad of Navarre gave him a little bag of arsenic, which he declared was a love-potion which would restore his father’s love for his mother if the powder were sprinkled on the Count’s food. The youth wore the bag of arsenic under his clothes, and eventually returned to Orthez; but his half-brother, having seen the bag, warned his father, who waited until his son was serving him at dinner, and then, suddenly seizing hold of his vest, obtained possession of the bag. The powder was sprinkled on some food and given to a dog, who succumbed to the poison soon afterwards. Young Gaston was placed in confinement, and, fearing to be poisoned, refused all food. His father therefore went to the dungeon and stabbed his son with a knife, saying, ‘Ha, traitor! why dost thou not eat?’ Orthez at one time had a Calvinist University, and the building still remains, although it is no longer a University. The Protestantism of the town has been consistent from the time of Jeanne d’Albret down to the present day, for there are more Protestants in Orthez than in any other town in Béarn. Montgomery, who had caused the death of Henri II. while tilting with him in the lists, began his career as leader of the Huguenots by raising an army and capturing Orthez, which had been filled with troops by Charles IX., in order to coerce the people into Roman Catholicism, three years before the massacre of St. Bartholomew. When the Huguenot army took Orthez, Montgomery’s initial success was marred by the savage treatment of the friars already mentioned. When the unfortunate clergy endeavoured to save themselves by swimming to the banks, they were shot. In 1814, in the last phase of the Peninsular War, when Wellington was driving Soult before him, Napoleon’s marshal decided to give battle at Orthez, placing his army of 30,000 men in a well-chosen position on the hills to the north of the town. Wellington attacked with 50,000 men, and after a desperate fight, in which 10,000 were killed, the French retreated along the road to Pau, at [Illustration: THE FORTIFIED BRIDGE AT ORTHEZ. From one of the windows of the tower, Montgomery, during the religious wars of the sixteenth century, forced priests and friars to leap into the river. ] first in an orderly fashion, but in the greatest confusion when their retreat was threatened. In his despatch Wellington wrote: