g the fruitful district of Brie, to have become master of the
rivers by which the means of subsistence were principally brought to
Paris. With Corbeil and Lagny in his possession, Conde would have held
Paris in as deadly a grasp as Henry the Fourth did twenty-eight years
later, when Alexander of Parma was forced to come from Flanders to its
assistance.[199] When, at last, the Huguenot army took the direction of
Corbeil, commanding one of the bridges, the news arrived of the death of
Antoine of Navarre. And with this intelligence came fresh messengers from
Catharine, who had already endeavored more than once by similar means to
delay the Huguenots in their advance. She now strove to amuse Conde with
the hope of succeeding his brother as lieutenant-general of the kingdom
during Charles's minority.[200]

In vain did the soldiers chafe at this new check upon their enthusiasm,
in vain did prudent counsellors remonstrate. There was a traitor even in
the prince's council, in the person of Jean de Hangest, sieur de Genlis
(brother of D'Ivoy, the betrayer of Bourges), whose open desertion we
shall soon have occasion to notice, and this treacherous adviser was
successful in procuring a delay of four days.[201] The respite was not
thrown away. Before the Huguenots were again in motion, Corbeil was
reinforced and rendered impregnable against any assaults which, with their
feeble artillery, they could make upon it. Repulsed from its walls, after
several days wasted in the vain hope of taking it, the prince moved down
the left bank of the Seine, and, on the twenty-eighth of November,
encamped opposite to Paris in the villages of Gentilly and Arcueil.[202]
New proffers came from Catharine; there were new delays on the road. At
Port a l'Anglais a conference with Conde had been projected by the queen
mother, resulting merely in one between the constable and his nephew
Coligny--as fruitless as any that had preceded; for Montmorency would not
hear of tolerating in France another religion besides the Roman Catholic,
and the Admiral would rather die a thousand deaths than abandon the
point.[203]

Under the walls of Paris new conferences took place. The Parisians worked
night and day, strengthening their defences, and making those preparations
which are rarely completed except under the spur of an extraordinary
emergency. Meanwhile, every day brought nearer the arrival of the Spanish
and Gascon auxiliaries whom they were expecting. At a wind