In these extremities Charles IX viewed the renewal of war on the opening of spring with alarm and began to think of making peace for a term, with no intention of keeping it, but merely in order to avoid a catastrophe and with the hope that some of the Huguenots might be disarmed in the interim. But suddenly the cloud was lifted. The royal army under the nominal command of the duke of Anjou, but really commanded by the veteran Tavannes, who had orders to give battle at all cost before the duke of Deuxponts could arrive, won the decisive victory of Jarnac on March 13, 1569. It was a fierce and bloody battle. The prince of Condé, after having been dangerously wounded and taken prisoner, suffered a foul death at the hands of some unknown assassin in the royal army, who shot him with a pistol-ball.[1320] In the engagement the Scotchman, Stuart, who had killed the constable at St. Denis, was taken and brought to the duke, who said to him: “So here you are, you traitor, you who have frequently boasted that you wished to kill the queen, my mother. Now you shall receive your deserts.” At that moment the marquis de Villars, the old constable’s brother-in-law, appeared, and with his own hands executed vengeance.[1321] [Illustration: _Croquis_ DU THÉATRE DE LA GUERRE pour la _Période du 24 Février au 13 Mars 1569._ Reproduced by permission of the author from M. S. C. Gigon’s _La bataille de Jarnac et la campagne de 1569 en Angoumais_ #/ ] [Illustration: BATAILLE DE JARNAC par S C GIGON _Methuen & Co._ ] In Paris when news of the battle of Jarnac was brought a grand procession was authorized by the clergy and the Parlement. All the stores and shops were closed as though it were a holiday. The clergy, bearing the relics of the saints, marched first to the convent of the Cordeliers, and then to that of the Jacobins, where a fiery sermon was preached by a Jacobin of Auxerre named Mammerot. After the sermon the _Te Deum_ was celebrated, and then the militia of the city assembled under the command of the four captains, and a grand review was held in the streets. The celebration ended by a great bonfire in front of the Hotel-de-Ville, and the firing of cannon.[1322] The Pope took the victory of Jarnac as a direct answer to prayer.[1323] CHAPTER XIV THE THIRD CIVIL WAR (_Continued_). THE PEACE OF ST. GERMAIN By the death of Condé the Admiral Coligny became the actual leader of the Protestant cause in France,[1324] the more so when his brother d’Andelot died on May 7,[1325] although the young prince of Condé and his cousin, Henry of Navarre, were theoretically so regarded.[1326] In the nature of things, the leadership of two boys—the former was seventeen, the other sixteen years of age—could only be a nominal one.