ich the courage of the assailants was equalled by the skill and
resolution of the defenders. As usual, the Huguenots were badly off for
artillery; the united armies could only muster five siege-pieces and four
light culverines. "For, although the Catholics esteem the Huguenots to be
'fiery' men," says a quaint old writer, who was as ready with his sword as
with his pen, "they have always been poorly provided with such implements.
Nor have they, like the former, a Saint Anthony, who, they say, presides
over the element in question."[499]

The operations of the siege of Chartres were interrupted by fresh
negotiations for peace. Half a year had the flames of war been desolating
the fairest parts of France; yet the court was no nearer the attainment of
its ends than at the outbreak of hostilities. If the Roman Catholic forces
had been swollen to about forty thousand men, they were confronted by a
Huguenot army of twenty-eight or thirty thousand men in the very
neighborhood of the capital. The voice of prudence dictated an immediate
settlement of the dispute before more lives were sacrificed, more towns
and villages destroyed, more treasure squandered. Catharine, reigning
supreme under her son's name, with her usual inconstancy of purpose, was
ready to exchange the war, into which she had plunged France by lending
too willing an ear to the suggestions of Philip of Spain, as they came to
her through the Cardinal of Lorraine and others, and which had produced
only bloodshed, devastation of the kingdom, and deeper depression of the
finances, for the peace to which Michel de l'Hospital, her better genius,
was constantly urging her by every consideration of policy and justice.

[Sidenote: Chancellor Michel de l'Hospital's memorial.]

In a paper, wherein about this time the chancellor committed to writing
the arguments he had often ineffectually employed to persuade the king and
his mother, he combats with patriotic indignation the flimsy pretexts of
which the priests and the Spaniard made use in pressing the continuance of
hostilities. "'The king has more men than the Huguenots.' True, but we
find twice as many battles on record gained by the smaller as by the
greater number; in consequence of which fact all princes and nations have
recognized the truth that victory is the gift of God. 'The king's cause is
the more just.' Grant it--yet God makes use of such instruments as He
wills to punish our iniquities--the Babylonians, for in