rrival might still have turned the
tide of battle.

Fuentes at last ordered his officers to signal their surrender. Enghien
rode forward, but, the Spanish soldiers believing that, as before, he
was but leading his cavalry against them, poured in a terrible volley.
He escaped by almost a miracle, but his soldiers, maddened by what they
believed to be an act of treachery, hurled themselves upon the enemy.
The square was broken, and a terrible slaughter ensued before the
exertions of the officers put a stop to it. Then the remaining Spaniards
surrendered. The battle of Rocroi was to the land forces of Spain a blow
as terrible and fatal as the destruction of the Armada had been to their
naval supremacy. It was indeed a death blow to the power that Spain had
so long exercised over Europe. It showed the world that her infantry
were no longer irresistible, and while it lowered her prestige it
infinitely increased that of France, which was now regarded as the first
military power in Europe.

The losses in the battle were extremely heavy. The German and Walloon
cavalry both suffered very severely, while of the Spanish infantry not
one man left the battlefield save as a prisoner, and fully two-thirds
of their number lay dead on the ground. Upon the French side the losses
were numerically much smaller. The German cavalry, after routing those
of l'Hopital, instead of following up the pursuit hurled themselves upon
the infantry, who broke almost without resistance. These also escaped
with comparatively little loss, de Malo leading the cavalry at once
against the French reserves. Among the cavalry commanded by Enghien the
loss was very heavy, and included many gentlemen of the best blood of
France. There was no pursuit; half the French cavalry were far away
from the field, the rest had lost well nigh half their number, and were
exhausted by the fury of the fight; indeed, the fugitive cavalry were
miles away before the conflict ended. The gallant old general, Fuentes,
expired from his wounds soon after the termination of the battle.

Hector was with the body of young nobles who followed close behind
Enghien in the three first desperate charges. In the third his horse was
shot under him just as the cavalry recoiled from the deadly fire of the
square. He partly extracted his foot from the stirrup as he fell, but
not sufficiently to free him, and he was pinned to the ground by the
weight of the horse. It was well for him that it was so