ho treated him
with the respect due to his rank. The number of prisoners was very
large,--according to some accounts, six thousand, of whom six hundred
were said to be gentlemen and persons of condition. The number of the
slain is stated, as usual, with great discrepancy, varying from three to
six thousand. A much larger proportion of them than usual were men of
family. Many a noble house in France went into mourning for that day.
Among those who fell was Jean de Bourbon, count d'Enghien, a prince of
the blood. Mortally wounded, he was carried to the tent of the duke of
Savoy, where he soon after expired, and his body was sent to his
countrymen at La Fere for honorable burial. To balance this bloody roll,
no account states the loss of the Spaniards at over a thousand men.[212]

More than eighty standards, including those of the cavalry, fell into
the hands of the victors, together with all the artillery,
ammunition-wagons, and baggage of the enemy. France had not experienced
such a defeat since the battle of Agincourt.[213]

King Philip had left Brussels, and removed his quarters to Cambray, that
he might be near the duke of Savoy, with whom he kept up daily
communication throughout the siege. Immediately after the battle, on the
eleventh of August, he visited the camp in person. At the same time, he
wrote to his father, expressing his regret that he had not been there to
share the glory of the day.[214] The emperor seems to have heartily
shared this regret.[215] It is quite certain, if Charles had had the
direction of affairs, he would not have been absent. But Philip had not
the bold, adventurous spirit of his father. His talent lay rather in
meditation than in action; and his calm, deliberate forecast better
fitted him for the council than the camp. In enforcing levies, in
raising supplies, in superintending the organization of the army, he was
indefatigable. The plan of the campaign was determined under his own
eye; and he was most sagacious in the selection of his agents. But to
those agents he prudently left the conduct of the war, for which he had
no taste, perhaps no capacity, himself. He did not, like his rival,
Henry the Second, fancy himself a great captain because he could carry
away the prizes of a tourney.

Philip was escorted to the camp by his household troops. He appeared on
this occasion armed _cap-a-pie_,--a thing by no means common with him.
It seems to have pleased his fancy to be painted in milit