saults on one of the redoubts which had been taken by the enemy, they regain possession of it.

The tide at length beginning to ebb, the hostile fleets are constrained to retreat, and the victory rests with the Duke. His loss in this quarter amounted to nearly eight hundred men; that of the Netherlanders to about two thousand. More than thirty vessels laden with provisions for Antwerp, and one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, fall into the hands of the Spaniards. The attempts which were, on the same day, made to destroy the bridge, were fruitless.

A general discouragement now pervades the minds of the besieged, aggravated by the want of provisions and by the information of the neighboring city of Mecheln having been taken by the enemy. The authorities are forced by the people to capitulate on the 17th of August, 1585.

During the lifetime of Henry III., the last king of France of the house of Valois, a formidable combination, denominated the League, had been organized in that country, at the head of which was, first, the Duke of Guise, and, subsequently, the Duke of Mayenne, and which had obliged the king to throw himself at last into the arms of the Huguenots, or French Protestants, to be enabled to maintain his authority. The king of Navarre, styled Henry IV., of the House of Bourbon, was the lawful heir to the throne. Mayenne, who was in possession of Paris and a great part of the kingdom, resisted his accession by all the means in his power, and only awaited the promised assistance of Spain to attack, and, as he confidently hoped, to destroy the Protestant and royal army. At length, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, sent Count Egmont to him from the Netherlands with eighteen hundred cavalry; and he now determined to relieve the city of Dreux, twenty miles north of Chartres, then besieged by Henry IV.

Battle of IVRY, fought on the 14th of March, 1590, between Henry IV., of France and the troops of the League, commanded by the Duke of Mayenne.

Henry had raised the siege of Dreux immediately upon hear ing of the approach of the Duke of Mayenne, and no time was lost by the hostile forces in coming in sight of each other at Ivry, between the rivers Eure and Iton. The royal army consisted of eight thousand infantry and twenty-five hundred cavalry, with six pieces of cannon; that of the League to thirteen thousand infantry and thirty-five hundred cavalry, with four pieces of cannon.

a a and b b on the plan represent positions successively occu pied by the royal army on the 13th of March, and d d is that of the opposite party on the same day.

On the following day, the order of battle of the former is (d) four hundred arquebusiers, (e) two hundred cavalry under the orders of the Marshal d'Aumont, (f) eight hundred arquebusiers in two divisions, (g) two hundred cavalry under the Duke of Montpensier, (h) two hundred cavalry under the Baron de Biron, (2) one thousand infantry in two divisions, (k) six hundred cavalry in five lines under the immediate command of the king, () thirty-two hundred infantry in eight divisions, (m) four hundred light cavalry in two divisions, under the Count d'Auvergne and the Chevalier Givry, and nn denote the six cannon; o denotes five hundred cavalry; p, twenty-four hundred Swiss; and q, three hundred cavalry, composing the reserve, under the Marshal Biron. A chain of light troops (r) covers the front of the position.

The Duke of Mayenne's army is drawn up in a concave line as follows: 8, is three thousand infantry in two divisions; t, three hundred German cavalry; u, eight hundred infantry; v, six hundred light cavalry in two divisions, before the right wing, under the orders of the Chevalier de Rosne; w, five hundred German cavalry; a, thirty-four hundred infantry; y, ten hundred Walloon lancers under Count Egmont; z, five hundred cavalry under the Duke of Mayenne in person; a', four hundred Spanish arquebusiers on horseback; b', forty-two hundred infantry, one half of them Swiss and the other French; c', four hundred German cavalry; d', sixteen hundred infantry in two divisions; and e' denotes the four cannon. A chain of light troops (ff) covers the front of the position.

VOL. III.-22

Before the battle began, Henry IV. is recorded as having ridden along the lines of his army, calling out to his soldiers, "When you fail to see any standards displayed, rally around the white crest of my helmet; you will always find it on the way of honor and glory." It commenced with the discharge of the artillery on both sides. The troops commanded by the Chevalier de Rosne suffer a considerable loss, whereupon he orders an attack to be made on the left wing of the royalists at A. Marshal d'Aumont encounters him at B, and obliges him to resume his position. The German cavalry, which had advanced from t to the support of De Rosne, are broken by a charge of the light cavalry of Givry and Auvergne from their position at m. These, then, carry disorder into the centre of the army of the League, but are at length driven back by Count Egmont to D, who is, in his turn, forced to fall back by the Baron de Biron and the Duke of Montpensier (g, h) to the post originally assigned to him.

For a considerable time occupied with restoring order in his centre, the Duke of Mayenne now only puts his squadrons in motion. And Henry IV., after another short address to his men, leads them forward himself.

The contest was a severe one, and Egmont and his troops especially distinguished themselves. The king deemed it necessary to order up to his assistance his entire reserve under the Marshal de Biron. At this crisis the result was still doubtful, when Count Egmont fell, shot by a pistol-ball. This might of itself have been sufficient to decide the day in favor of Henry. But about this moment his standard-bearer, severely wounded, was obliged to be conveyed from the field, and the soldiers were exceedingly discouraged by the fall of a young knight with a white crest, near the person of the king, and who was mistaken by them for the latter. In this emergency, Henry, taking off his helmet, exhibited his well-known countenance to his followers, and, with his bloody sword in his hand, excited them to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Nothing could any longer resist their valor, and the victory was decided.

Some attempts were indeed still made by the Duke of Mayenne, after the defeat of his cavalry, to maintain the contest with infantry. The Swiss troops oppose to the enemy a vigorous resistance, but at length lay down their arms on perceiving themselves to be surrounded on every side, and a body of Germans, refusing to do the like, are for the most part cut down.

The army of the League takes to flight in two different directions-one portion of it on the route to Chartres, under the Duke of Nemours, and the other, under the Duke of Mayenne, upon Ivry, where it passes the River Eure, destroying the bridge behind it, and marching afterwards on Mantes. Barricades had

been thrown up at Ivry, and were stormed by the Marshal de Biron upon his arrival.

All the baggage and artillery of the defeated troops are taken, and they lose also three-fourths of their original number, killed, wounded, or prisoners, or drowned in the Eure. The loss incurred by the royal army is estimated at five hundred men.

Other battles, fought and won in the same chivalrous spirit as that of Ivry, have conferred an undying renown on Henry of Navarre. But independently of the bravery and prowess repeatedly displayed by him, he ranks as a general with the most illustrious of his contemporaries, with the Duke of Parma, with Coligni, with Condé, and with Maurice, of Nassau,-in introducing a higher degree of order and discipline among the soldiers of an army, and in preparing the way for the appearance of Gustavus Adolphus. And we may conclude our notice of the battle of Ivry by noticing the far greater importance then attached to cavalry than to infantry, in a serious and open contest with an enemy, an importance thenceforth destined gradually, for a time at least, to diminish.

Siege of STRALSUND, from the 13th of May to the 4th of August, 1628.

At the period in question, Stralsund was one of the Hanse

towns, although acknowledging the feudal superiority of the Duke of Pomerania. The Emperor of Germany, Ferdinand II., deemed it to be expedient to place a garrison of his troops within its walls. An expedition, should one be thought desirable, might then be fitted out from its harbor against Sweden, which had furnished less or more of encouragement and aid to the German Protestants during the first ten years (of the socalled Thirty Years' War) of their struggle for religious liberty against the imperial authority.

To accomplish this design, General von Arnim was ordered to approach the city with a force of eight thousand men.

On the 13th of May, that general pitched his camp at a a a, and made the requisite demand to be admitted into the place. A negative reply having been promptly given, he next endeavors to attain his object by the stratagem of asking for a passage through the city of one thousand cuirassiers and five companies of foot soldiers, to be embarked thence for the island of Rugen. And this request being also refused him, he seizes possession of the small island of Daenholm, which was garrisoned by a small body of Danes that the magistrates of Stralsund had taken into their pay.

The latter, exceedingly irritated at this proceeding, having in vain required an immediate restoration of the island, lost no time in commencing hostilities against its captors, who were very soon reduced, by the want of provisions, to the necessity of embarking for the neighboring island of Rugen.

In the night between the 16th and 17th of May the Imperialists, by means of a surprise, obtain possession of the intrenchments of the city, at R and S, situated before the Knieper and the Franken gates. But they are expelled from them at six o'clock on the following morning, with loss.

The citizens of Stralsund are not a little encouraged by these events, as also by the arrival of munitions of war and other aid gratuitously bestowed upon them by the King of Denmark, and of several vessels from the south of Europe laden with provisions.

On the 17th of May a part of the Imperial army encamps near bb, in the vicinity of the Frankindamm, and intrenches itself.

A written communication, in the handwriting of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, is received at Stralsund on the 18th, encouraging the inhabitants to perseverance in their efforts at resistance, promising them aid, and presenting them with a vessel laden with gunpowder. Some Danish troops, too, with cannon, arrive on the same day; and these last are mounted on the walls without delay. The Imperialists, in the mean time, erect the works (ccc) on the Southern side of the city and against the island of Daenholm, and do the like at dd, on