nd then we thought on vengeance, and all along our van,
'Remember St. Bartholomew,' was passed from man to man;
But out spake gentle Henry, 'No Frenchman is my foe;
Down--down with every foreigner! but let your brethren go.'
Oh, was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war,
As our sovereign lord King Henry, the soldier of Navarre?"

This decisive battle established Henry on the throne. Mayenne still
held Paris, and many other important fortresses in other parts of
France; but his main army was defeated and dispersed, and he could no
longer venture to encounter Henry in the open field. Having thrown
some additional forces into Paris, which city he knew that Henry would
immediately besiege, he fled to Flanders to obtain re-enforcements.

Paris was in consternation. Not a town in its vicinity could resist
the conqueror. Henry was but two days' march from his rebellious
capital. The Leaguers could hope for no aid for many weeks. The
Royalist cause had many friends among the Parisians, eager for an
opportunity to raise within their walls the banner of their lawful
sovereign.

Henry had now the entire command of the Seine from Rouen to Paris. Had
he immediately marched upon the capital, there can be no doubt that it
would have been compelled to surrender; but, for some reason which has
never been satisfactorily explained, he remained for a fortnight
within one day's march of the field of Ivry. Various causes have been
surmised for this unaccountable delay, but there is no authentic
statement to be found in any letters written by Henry, or in any
contemporaneous records. The time, however, thus lost, whatever might
have been the cause, proved to him a terrible calamity. The partisans
of the League in the city had time to recover from their panic, to
strengthen their defenses, and to collect supplies.

One act of magnanimity which Henry performed during this interval is
worthy of record. Two regiments of Swiss Catholics, who had been sent
to fight beneath the banners of Mayenne, had surrendered to the royal
forces. They were for a few days intensely anxious respecting their
fate. Henry restored to them their ensigns, furnished them with money,
supplied them with provisions, and sent them back to their native
country. He gave them a letter to the Swiss cantons, with dignity
reproaching them for their violation of the friendly treaty existing
between Switzerland and the crown of France.

It was not until the 2