rst of the three who became a
Protestant. He was a skilful and gallant soldier, and signalized
himself repeatedly by his enterprise, his inexhaustible resources, and
undaunted spirit, as a commander of the Huguenot forces from the first
outbreak of the religious wars until his death soon after the battle
of Jarnac, in 1569. Gaspard, the great Coligni, or the Admiral (as he
is often termed, from having held the titular office of Admiral of
France), was the middle one of the three brothers, and was born at
Chatillon-sur-Lion, February 16, 1517. He served with distinction in
the later wars of Francis I. against Spain; and with his brother
Dandelot received knighthood on the field of battle at Cerisoles. He
was afterward raised to the important post of colonel-general of the
French infantry, and in 1552 was nominated by Henry II. Admiral of
France. He was taken prisoner at St. Quentin by the Spaniards, and
underwent a long captivity in Spain before he regained his liberty by
payment of a heavy ransom.

During the long hours of solitude and compulsory inaction which he
passed in his Spanish prison, he meditated deeply and earnestly on
religious subjects; and after his return to France, the conversation
of his brother Dandelot, who had already joined the Huguenots,
confirmed the bias to the Protestant doctrines, which his own studies
and deliberations had created. Coligni now resigned all his
appointments and preferments, except the nominal rank of admiral, and
retired to his estates, where he passed his time in fervent devotion,
and in the enjoyment of the calm happiness of domestic life. But the
cry of suffering which rose from his fellow-Protestants, against whom
the pernicious influence of the Princes of Lorraine in the French
court kindled the fires of persecution throughout France, soon drew
him from his blameless and cherished repose. He at first sought to
provide for them a refuge from oppression, by founding colonies of
French Protestants in America; but his projects proved unsuccessful;
and as the tyranny of the violent party among the French Catholics
grew more and more alarming, Coligni deemed that both honor and
conscience required him to stand openly forward in behalf of his
co-religionists.

No class of men ever were more long-suffering, or showed more
unwillingness to rise in arms against their domestic tyrants, than the
much-calumniated Huguenots of France. When we read the hideous edicts
that were promulg