ieges of Montmedy and Bains. In 1544 he served in the Italian campaign
under the duke of Enghien, and was knighted on the field of Ceresole.
Returning to France, he took part in different military operations; and
having been made colonel-general of the infantry (April 1547), exhibited
great capacity and intelligence as a military reformer. He was made
admiral on the death of d'Annebaut (1552). In 1557 he was entrusted with
the defence of Saint Quentin. In the siege he displayed great courage,
resolution, and strength of character; but the place was taken, and he
was imprisoned in the stronghold of L'Ecluse. On payment of a ransom of
50,000 crowns he recovered his liberty. But he had by this time become a
Huguenot, through the influence of his brother, d'Andelot--the first
letter which Calvin addressed to him is dated the 4th of September
1558--and he busied himself secretly with protecting his
co-religionists, a colony of whom he sent to Brazil, whence they were
afterwards expelled by the Portuguese.

On the death of Henry II. he placed himself, with Louis, prince of
Conde, in the front of his sect, and demanded religious toleration and
certain other reforms. In 1560, at the Assembly of Notables at
Fontainebleau, the hostility between Coligny and Francis of Guise broke
forth violently. When the civil wars began in 1562, Coligny decided to
take arms only after long hesitation, and he was always ready to
negotiate. In none of these wars did he show superior genius, but he
acted throughout with great prudence and extraordinary tenacity; he was
"le heros de la mauvaise fortune." In 1569 the defeat and death of the
prince of Conde at Jarnac left him sole leader of the Protestant armies.
Victorious at Arnay-le-Duc, he obtained in 1570 the pacification of St
Germain. Returning to the court in 1571, he grew rapidly in favour with
Charles XI. As a means of emancipating the king from the tutelage of his
mother and the faction of the Guises, the admiral proposed to him a
descent on Spanish Flanders, with an army drawn from both sects and
commanded by Charles in person. The king's regard for the admiral, and
the bold front of the Huguenots, alarmed the queen-mother; and the
massacre of St Bartholomew was the consequence. On the 22nd of August
1572 Coligny was shot in the street by Maurevel, a bravo in the pay of
the queen-mother and Guise; the bullets, however, only tore a finger
from his right hand and shattered his left elbow. The