lan to seize and hold the city and bridge of Saumur, and thus
secure for the Huguenots the means of easy communication between the two
sides of the important basin intervening between the smaller basins of the
Seine and the Garonne. His expectations, however, were frustrated
principally by the good fortune of M. de Martigues, who succeeded in
making a sudden dash through D'Andelot's scattered divisions, and in
conveying to the Duke of Montpensier at Saumur so large a reinforcement as
to render it impossible for the Huguenots to dream of dislodging him.[602]
For a time D'Andelot was in great peril. With only about fifteen hundred
horse and twenty-five hundred foot,[603] he stood on the banks of a river
swollen by autumnal rains and supposed to be utterly impassable, and in
the midst of a country all whose cities were in the hands of the enemy. He
had even formed the desperate design of retiring twenty or thirty miles
northward, in hope of being able to entice Montpensier to follow him so
incautiously that he might turn upon him, and, after winning a victory,
secure for himself a passage to the sources of the Loire or to his allies
in Germany. At this moment the joyful announcement was made by Montgomery
that a ford had been discovered. The news proved to be true. The crossing
was safe and easy. Not a man nor a horse was lost. The interposition of
heaven in their behalf was so wonderful, that, as the Huguenot troopers
reached the southern bank, the whole army, by common and irresistible
impulse, broke forth in praise to Almighty God, and sang that grand psalm
of deliverance--the seventy-sixth.[604] Never had those verses of Beza
been sung by more thankful hearts or in a nobler temple.[605]

[Sidenote: Success in Poitou, Angoumois, etc.]

Full of courage, the exultant troops of D'Andelot now pressed southward.
First the city of Thouars fell into their hands; then the more important
Partenay surrendered itself to the Huguenots. Here, according to the cruel
rules of warfare of the sixteenth century, they deemed themselves
justified in hanging the commander of the place, who had thrown himself
into the castle, for having too obstinately insisted upon standing an
assault in a spot incapable of defence, together with some priests who
had shared his infatuation.[606] Admiral Coligny now met his brother, and
the united army, with three cannon brought from La Rochelle, forming his
entire siege artillery, demanded and obtained the s