to become, nor had yet commanded in chief on any important occasion, he was accounted one of the five principal generals in the Spanish service.  Eager for general admiration, he was at the same time haughty and presumptuous, attempting to combine the characters of an arrogant magnate and a popular chieftain.  Terrible and sudden in his wrath, he was yet of inordinate vanity, and was easily led by those who understood his weakness.  With a limited education, and a slender capacity for all affairs except those relating to the camp, he was destined to be as vacillating and incompetent as a statesman, as he was prompt and fortunately audacious in the field.  A splendid soldier, his evil stars had destined him to tread, as a politician, a dark and dangerous path, in which not even genius, caution, and integrity could ensure success, but in which rashness alternating with hesitation, and credulity with violence, could not fail to bring ruin.  Such was Count Egmont, as he took his place at the-head of the king’s cavalry in the summer of 1557.

The early operations of the Duke of Savoy were at first intended to deceive the enemy.  The army, after advancing as far into Picardy as the town of Vervins, which they burned and pillaged, made a demonstration with their whole force upon the city of Guise.  This, however, was but a feint, by which attention was directed and forces drawn off from Saint Quentin, which was to be the real point of attack In the mean time, the Constable of France, Montmorency, arrived upon the 28th July (1557), to take command of the French troops.  He was accompanied by the Marechal de Saint Andre and by Admiral Coligny.  The most illustrious names of France, whether for station or valor, were in the officers’ list of this select army.  Nevers and Montpensier, Enghien and Conde, Vendome and Rochefoucauld, were already there, and now the Constable and the Admiral came to add the strength of their experience and lofty reputation to sustain the courage of the troops.  The French were at Pierrepoint, a post between Champagne and Picardy, and in its neighborhood.  The Spanish army was at Vervins, and threatening Guise.  It had been the opinion in France that the enemy’s intention was to invade Champagne, and the Duc de Nevers, governor of that province, had made a disposition of his forces suitable for such a contingency.  It was the conviction of Montmorency, however, that Picardy was to be the quarter really attacked, and that Saint Quentin, which was the most important point at which the enemy’s progress, by that route, towards Paris could be arrested, was in imminent danger.  The Constable’s opinion was soon confirmed by advices received by Coligny.  The enemy’s army, he was informed, after remaining three days before Guise, had withdrawn from that point, and had invested Saint Quentin with their whole force.