from so illustrious a captive, two other lieutenants in the service of Marshal de Rosnes came up and claimed their share in the prize.  While the four were wrangling, the admiral called out to them in excellent Spanish not to dispute, for he had money enough to satisfy them all.  Meantime the Spanish commissary—­general of cavalry, Contreras, came up, rebuked this unseemly dispute before the enemy had been fairly routed, and, in order to arrange the quarrel impartially, ordered his page to despatch De Villars on the spot.  The page, without a word, placed his arquebus to the admiral’s forehead and shot him dead.

So perished a bold and brilliant soldier, and a most unscrupulous politician.  Whether the cause of his murder was mere envy on the part of the commissary at having lost a splendid opportunity for prize-money, or hatred to an ancient Leaguer thus turned renegade, it is fruitless now to enquire.

Villars would have paid two hundred thousand crowns for his ransom, so that the assassination was bad as a mercantile speculation; but it was pretended by the friends of Contreras that rescue was at hand.  It is certain, however, that nothing was attempted by the French to redeem their total overthrow.  Count Belin was wounded and fell into the hands of Coloma.  Sanseval was killed; and a long list of some of the most brilliant nobles in France was published by the Spaniards as having perished on that bloody field.  This did not prevent a large number of these victims, however, from enjoying excellent health for many long years afterwards, although their deaths have been duly recorded in chronicle from that day to our own times.

But Villars and Sanseval were certainly slain, and Fuentes sent their bodies, with a courteous letter, to the Duke of Nevers, at Amiens, who honoured them with a stately funeral.

There was much censure cast on both Bouillon and Villars respectively by the antagonists of each chieftain; and the contest as to the cause of the defeat was almost as animated as the skirmish itself.  Bouillon was censured for grudging a victory to the Catholics, and thus leaving the admiral to his fate.  Yet it is certain that the Huguenot duke himself commanded a squadron composed almost entirely of papists.  Villars, on the other hand, was censured for rashness, obstinacy, and greediness for distinction; yet it is probable that Fuentes might have been defeated had the charges of Bouillon been as determined and frequent as were those of his colleague.  Savigny de Rosnes, too, the ancient Leaguer, who commanded under Fuentes, was accused of not having sufficiently followed up the victory, because unwilling that his Spanish friends should entirely trample upon his own countrymen.  Yet there is no doubt whatever that De Rosnes was as bitter an enemy to his own country as the most ferocious Spaniard of them all.  It has rarely been found in civil war that the man who draws his sword against his fatherland, under the banner of the foreigner, is actuated by any lingering tenderness for the nation he betrays; and the renegade Frenchman was in truth the animating spirit of Fuentes during the whole of his brilliant campaign.  The Spaniard’s victories were, indeed, mainly attributable to the experience, the genius, and the rancour of De Rosnes.