was ill prepared for so serious an attack; his army, which was scarcely twenty thousand strong, mustered near Laon under the orders of the Duke of Nevers, governor of Champagne; at the end of July, 1557, it hurried into Picardy, under the command of the Constable de Montmorency, who was supported by Admiral de Coligny, his nephew, by the Duke of Enghien, by the Prince of Condo, and by the Duke of Montpensier, by nearly all the great lords and valiant warriors of France; they soon saw that Saint- Quentin was in a deplorable state of defence; the fortifications were old and badly kept up; soldiers, munitions of war, and victuals were all equally deficient.

Coligny did not hesitate, however he threw himself into the place on the 2d of August, during the night, with a small corps of seven hundred men and Saint-Remy, a skilful engineer, who had already distinguished himself in the defence of Metz; the admiral packed off the useless mouths, repaired the walls at the points principally threatened, and reanimated the failing courage of the inhabitants.

The constable and his army came within hail of the place; and D'Andelot, Coligny's brother, managed with great difficulty to get four hundred and fifty men into it.
On the 10th of August the battle was begun between the two armies.

The constable affected to despise the Duke of Savoy's youth.

"I will soon show him," said he, "a move of an old soldier." The French army, very inferior in numbers, was for a moment on the point of being surrounded.
The Prince of Conde sent the constable warning.