The only advantage the prince had gained was that he had been able to draw his force close in toward Paris, so that in the last week in November he was camped near the Pont de Charenton. On the 26th he planted his camp on the left bank, a mile from the faubourgs. If the prince of Condé had attacked Paris at once, instead of wasting time at Corbeil in vain _pourparlers_, the whole Huguenot cause might have triumphed, for the government would have been forced to yield almost everything. He might have won the suburbs with little loss, although in want of heavy artillery, and the city could not then have held out long. But now the case was such that he either had to fight—with small hope of winning, let alone of taking Paris—or else come to an accord upon his enemy’s terms.[632] The prevailing opinion was that the prince would not be able to keep his army together for want of provisions and money, especially in mid-winter.[633] This proved to be true. On December 9 he broke camp and marched off crestfallen, toward Normandy, after burning the camp, to effect a juncture with the English.[634] By this time he had barely 7,000 men, the time of the year telling hard upon the army, for it was compelled to live in the open, while his adversaries had 15,000 or 16,000 men of all nations, one-quarter of whom were mounted. The difficulty of his position was the greater because he was on the left bank of the Seine, with no prospect of passing the river, for the duke of Guise lay at Poissy,[635] while the Rhinegrave and Villebonne were guarding Pont de l’Arche lower down. Warwick was unwilling to venture forth from Havre to the prince’s assistance, but hoped, by stopping the shipment of salt and other merchandise up the Seine, to be able to compel the towns of Normandy, as Honfleur, Harfleur, Caudebec, and Rouen, for necessity’s sake to come to terms.[636] Being unable to pass the Seine, Condé drew off toward Chartres, followed at the distance of about five leagues by the duke of Guise and the constable, and came to a halt near Montfort not far from Evreux, while Guise lay at a point about ten leagues west of St. Denis, from whence, including Paris, he drew his supplies.[637] All around the two armies the country was destroyed. [Illustration: BATTLE OF DREUX, DECEMBER 19, 1562 (Bib. Nat., Estampes, _Histoire de France_, Q. b)]