*Interim*
A few days after this notable adventure, the Duke of Mayenne encampedover against Arques, and made sundry assaults upon King Henry'sentrenchments, being baffled at all points. Then, hearing that newforces were drawing near from the east, and that five thousand goodEnglish soldiers were upon the sea, he withdrew himself into Picardy,the King marching close upon his heels up to the very walls of Paris,the suburbs whereof he took, and gave over to pillage. But wintercoming on, he stayed not to open a siege, but withdrew to Tours,sallying forth thence when he heard that Mayenne was again afoot. Manystrong places in Normandy yielded themselves up to him, and in themiddle of March in the next year he gave battle to Mayenne at Ivry,where, when Fortune seemed to be turning against him, he calledcheerfully upon his nobles and gentlemen, and they following him chargedinto the thick of the fray, his white plume waving in the midst. Andamong the thirty horsemen that came forth with him out of the mellay wasmy grandfather, who bore ever after on his neck the scar of a sword cutdealt him on that glorious day.
After this victory my grandfather accompanied the King in his march uponParis, to which city Henry laid siege, straitly shutting it up all thatsummer, so that they lacked food, and devoured horses and asses, dogsand rats, and even little balls of clay and powdered bones. But theDuke of Parma coming out of the Low Countries with an army of Spaniards,the King was enforced to strike his camp and haste to meet this doughtyfoe. Nevertheless there was no battle betwixt them, for Henry was in nowise strong enough to match the Duke, nor indeed was he equal to him inthe art of war, though none could be bolder or more daring in the field.Being therefore outdone, he drew back his forces, and the city wasopened to the Spaniards, who threw into it a plenty of victuals andlifted the people out of their misery.
It were too long to tell of all the skirmishes, the marchings andcountermarchings, the captures and surprises, wherein my grandfatherbore his part for three years from that time. But in July 1593, theKing professed himself of the Catholic faith, to the joy of the greaterpart of the nation, and the confusion of his enemies. City after cityopened its gates to him; by the end of that year France had peace, andmany of the English gentlemen that had fought for the King returned totheir own country, my grandfather being among them. He told me that themain cause of his return was Queen Elizabeth's displeasure with Henryfor that he had changed his religion, but it is known that the Queennevertheless withdrew not her support from him, and methinks mygrandfather himself no longer held him in the same degree of respect,for he abhorred a turncoat, and I know that he grieved because, as allmen knew, the King forsook his faith without sincerity and for the merebauble of a crown. My father was used to remind him how Naaman theSyrian bowed himself in the house of Rimmon, and is held of many to beblameless; and how King Henry did in truth by his conversion compose theFrench nation to peace and order; whereat my grandfather would cry, "Hownow! would you do ill that good may come?" and so put him to silence.
However, having returned to London, my grandfather obtained by theinterest of a noble friend the promise of a place among the Queen'sGuard. Yet it was some while ere he entered into this honourableoffice, for being sent by my Lord Burghley upon an errand to Flanders,he was led by chance, or more truly by the hand of Providence, to employhis sword in defence of the liberties of the commonweal there. TheProvinces had been struggling for five and twenty years against theoppression of the Spanish King and his minions, of whom the Duke of Alvain especial left a name for iron sternness and cruelty. Like as in thecase of King Henry of Navarre, Queen Elizabeth lent aid to the sufferingfolk; many of her chiefest men were captains in their army, and becamegovernors of their towns, and did many right honest and praiseworthydeeds in their behoof. And among the stories that my grandfather toldme, none pleased me better than this that now follows, wherein herelates a quaint and pleasant conceit that he devised for the undoing ofa traitor.
*THE THIRD PART*
*CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES, AND HIS QUAINT DEVICE OF THE SILVER SHOT*
headpiece to Third Part]