258 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



no weaker power than the inflexible and persevering 

 genius of Richelieu. 



Among the events which signalise the mournful 

 period of our religious wars, there are scarcely any 

 which equal in importance the two sieges of La 

 Rochelle by the royal troops. The Massacre of 

 Saint Bartholomew, on the 24th of August, 1572, 

 had placed the Rochellais on their guard, and on the 

 first news of this fearful event they prepared coura- 

 geously to defend their lives and religion.* The 

 mayor, Jacques-Henri, placed the city in a state of 

 defence, and armed all the inhabitants. Paris, 

 Orleans, Tours, Bordeaux, Castres, and Mmes, sent 

 reinforcements of Calvinists who had escaped the 

 sword of the assassins, and these refugees constituted 

 a formidable body known as the enfants perdus. 



The territory of La Rochelle was indeed speedily 

 invaded, and the city closely invested by the royal 

 troops under the command of the Duke d'Anjou. 

 With him were also present the Duke d'Alen9on, his 

 brother, and Henry of Navarre, together with the elite 

 of the French nobility, including the Prince de 

 Conde, the Dukes de Nevers, Longueville, Guise, 

 and Mayenne, with the Duke d'Aumale, the Catholic 

 hero of " La Henriade," to whom Charles IX. had 

 confided the direction of the siege. The attack on 



* Histoiredu 'siege de la Rochclh par le due d'Anjou en 1573, by 

 A. Genet. The author of this narrative, which is composed from a 

 purely military point of view, combines together all the documents 

 that have been left in relation to this siege, and it is from this writer 

 and from Father Arcere that we have extracted the materials em- 

 ployed in the above narrative. 



