The coldness and caution, not to say the pusillanimity of Philip, prevented him from seizing the golden fruits of his triumph.  Ferdinand Gonzaga wished the blow to be followed up by an immediate march upon Paris.—­Such was also the feeling of all the distinguished soldiers of the age.  It was unquestionably the opinion, and would have been the deed, of Charles, had he been on the field of Saint Quentin, crippled as he was, in the place of his son.  He could not conceal his rage and mortification when he found that Paris had not fallen, and is said to have refused to read the despatches which recorded that the event had not been consummated.  There was certainly little of the conqueror in Philip’s nature; nothing which would have led him to violate the safest principles of strategy.  He was not the man to follow up enthusiastically the blow which had been struck; Saint Quentin, still untaken, although defended by but eight hundred soldiers, could not be left behind him; Nevers was still in his front, and although it was notorious that he commanded only the wreck of an army, yet a new one might be collected, perhaps, in time to embarrass the triumphant march to Paris.  Out of his superabundant discretion, accordingly, Philip refused to advance till Saint Quentin should be reduced.

Although nearly driven to despair by the total overthrow of the French in the recent action, Coligny still held bravely out, being well aware that every day by which the siege could be protracted was of advantage to his country.  Again he made fresh attempts to introduce men into the city.  A fisherman showed him a submerged path, covered several feet deep with water, through which he succeeded in bringing one hundred and fifty unarmed and half-drowned soldiers into the place.  His garrison consisted barely of eight hundred men, but the siege was still sustained, mainly by his courage and sagacity, and by the spirit of his brother Andelot.  The company of cavalry, belonging to the Dauphin’s regiment, had behaved badly, and even with cowardice, since the death of their commander Teligny.  The citizens were naturally weary and impatient of the siege.  Mining and countermining continued till the 21st August.  A steady cannonade was then maintained until the 27th.  Upon that day, eleven breaches having been made in the walls, a simultaneous assault was ordered at four of them.  The citizens were stationed upon the walls, the soldiers in the breaches.  There was a short but sanguinary contest, the garrison resisting with uncommon bravery.  Suddenly an entrance was effected through a tower which had been thought sufficiently strong, and which had been left unguarded.  Coligny, rushing to the spot, engaged the enemy almost single-handed.  He was soon overpowered, being attended only by four men and a page, was made a prisoner by a soldier named Francisco Diaz, and conducted through one of the subterranean mines into the presence of the Duke of Savoy, from whom the captor received ten thousand ducats in exchange for the Admiral’s sword.  The fighting still continued with great determination in the streets, the brave Andelot resisting to the last.  He was, however, at last overpowered, and taken prisoner.  Philip, who had, as usual, arrived in the trenches by noon, armed in complete harness, with a page carrying his helmet, was met by the intelligence that the city of Saint Quentin was his own.