lled the assailants to give way in their turn. The
struggle, now continued on more equal terms, grew desperate; man against
man, horse against horse,--it seemed to be a contest of personal
prowess, rather than of tactics or military science. So well were the
two parties matched, that for a long time the issue was doubtful; and
the Spaniards might not have prevailed in the end, but for the arrival
of reinforcements, both foot and heavy cavalry, who came up to their
support. Unable to withstand this accumulated force, the French
cavaliers, overpowered by numbers, not by superior valor, began to give
ground. Hard pressed by Egmont, who cheered on his men to renewed
efforts, their ranks were at length broken. The retreat became a flight;
and, scattered over the field in all directions, they were hotly pursued
by their adversaries, especially the German _schwarzreiters_,--those
riders "black as devils,"[209]--who did such execution with their
fire-arms as completed the discomfiture of the French.

Amidst this confusion, the Gascons, the flower of the French infantry,
behaved with admirable coolness.[210] Throwing themselves into squares,
with the pikemen armed with their long pikes in front, and the
arquebusiers in the centre, they presented an impenetrable array,
against which the tide of battle raged and chafed in impotent fury. It
was in vain that the Spanish horse rode round the solid masses bristling
with steel, if possible, to force an entrance, while an occasional shot,
striking a trooper from his saddle, warned them not to approach too
near.

It was in this state of things that the duke of Savoy, with the
remainder of the troops, including the artillery, came on the field of
action. His arrival could not have been more seasonable. The heavy guns
were speedily turned on the French squares, whose dense array presented
an obvious mark to the Spanish bullets. Their firm ranks were rent
asunder; and, as the brave men tried in vain to close over the bodies of
their dying comrades, the horse took advantage of the openings to plunge
into the midst of the phalanx. Here the long spears of the pikemen were
of no avail, and, striking right and left, the cavaliers dealt death on
every side. All now was confusion and irretrievable ruin. No one thought
of fighting, or even of self-defence. The only thought was of flight.
Men overturned one another in their eagerness to escape. They were soon
mingled with the routed cavalry, who ro