The city was now invested by Noircarmes with all the troops which could be spared.  The confederates gave promises of assistance to the beleaguered citizens, Orange privately encouraged them to holdout in their legitimate refusal.  Brederode and others busied themselves with hostile demonstrations which were destined to remain barren; but in the mean time the inhabitants had nothing to rely upon save their own stout hearts and arms.

At first, the siege was sustained with a light heart.  Frequent sallies were made, smart skirmishes were ventured, in which the Huguenots, on the testimony of a most bitter Catholic contemporary, conducted themselves with the bravery of veteran troops, and as if they had done nothing all their lives but fight; forays were made upon the monasteries of the neighborhood for the purpose of procuring supplies, and the broken statues of the dismantled churches were used to build a bridge across an arm of the river, which was called in derision the Bridge of Idols.  Noircarmes and the six officers under him, who were thought to be conducting their operations with languor, were christened the Seven Sleepers.  Gigantic spectacles, three feet in circumference, were planted derisively upon the ramparts, in order that the artillery, which it was said that the papists of Arras were sending, might be seen, as soon as it should arrive.  Councillor Outreman, who had left the city before the siege, came into it again, on commission from Noircarmes.  He was received with contempt, his proposals on behalf of the government were answered with outcries of fury; he was pelted with stones, and was very glad to make his escape alive.  The pulpits thundered with the valiant deeds of Joshua, Judas Maccabeus, and other bible heroes.  The miracles wrought in their behalf served to encourage the enthusiasm of the people, while the movements making at various points in the neighborhood encouraged a hope of a general rising throughout the country.

Those hopes were destined to disappointment.  There were large assemblages made, to be sure, at two points.  Nearly three thousand sectaries had been collected at Lannoy under Pierre Comaille, who, having been a locksmith and afterwards a Calvinist preacher, was now disposed to try his fortune as a general.  His band was, however, disorderly.  Rustics armed with pitchforks, young students and old soldiers out of employment, furnished with rusty matchlocks, pikes and halberds, composed his force.  A company similar in character, and already amounting to some twelve hundred in number, was collecting at Waterlots.  It was hoped that an imposing array would soon be assembled, and that the two bands. making a junction, would then march to the relief of Valenciennes.  It was boasted that in a very short time, thirty thousand men would be in the field.  There was even a fear of some such result felt by the Catholics.

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: