ome out to
meet him, the course of recent events, he followed the Admiral toward
Orleans. Invested by the king with the supreme command during the
captivity of the constable, and leading a victorious army, he speedily
reduced Etampes and Pithiviers, captured by Conde on his march to Paris.
Meantime, Coligny had taken a number of places in the vicinity of Orleans,
and his "black riders" had become the terror of the papists of
Sologne.[221] Not long after Guise's approach, fearing that his design was
to besiege the city of Orleans, Coligny threw himself into it. His stay
was not long, however. His German cavalry could do nothing in case of a
siege, and would only be a burden to the citizens. Besides, he was in want
of funds to pay them. He resolved, therefore, to strike boldly for
Normandy.[222] Having persuaded the reiters to dispense with their heavy
baggage-wagons,[223] which had proved so great an incumbrance on the
previous march, he started from Orleans on the first of February with four
thousand troopers, leaving his brother D'Andelot as well furnished as
practicable to sustain the inevitable siege. The lightness of his army's
equipment precluded the possibility of pursuit; its strength secured it an
almost undisputed passage.[224] In a few days it had passed Dreux and the
scene of the late battle, and at Dives, on the opposite side of the
estuary of the Seine from Havre, had received from the English the
supplies of money which they had long been desirous of finding means to
convey to the Huguenots.[225] The only considerable forces of the Guise
faction in Normandy were on the banks of the river, too busy watching the
English at Havre to be able to spare any troops to resist Coligny. Turning
his attention to the western shores of the province, he soon succeeded in
reducing Pont-l'Eveque, Caen, Bayeux, Saint Lo, and the prospect was
brilliant of his soon being able, in conjunction with Queen Elizabeth's
troops, to bring all Normandy over to the side of the prince.[226]
Meanwhile, however, there were occurring in the centre of the kingdom
events destined to give an entirely different turn to the relations of the
Huguenots and papists in France. To these we must now direct our
attention.

Francois de Guise, relieved of the admiral's presence, had begun the siege
of Orleans four days after the departure of the latter for Normandy (on
the fifth of February), and manifested the utmost determination to destroy
the capita