363-369; in the _Collection des Documents inedits sur l'Histoire de France_.] This fight, so unpremeditated, at Fontaine-Francaise, and the presence of mind, steady quicksightedness, and brilliant dash of Henry IV., led off this long war gloriously.

Its details were narrated and sought after minutely; people were especially struck with the sympathetic attention that in the very midst of the strife the king bestowed upon all his companions in arms, either to give them directions or to warn them of danger.

"At the hottest of the fight," says the contemporary historian Peter Matthieu, "Henry, seizing Mirebeau by the arm, said, 'Charge yonder!' which he did: and that troop began to thin off and disappear." A moment afterwards, seeing one of the enemy's men-at-arms darting down upon the French, Henry concluded that the attack was intended for Gilbert, de la Cure, a brave and pious Catholic lord, whom he called familiarly _Monsieur le Cure,_ and shouted to him from afar, "Look out, La Curee!" which warned him and saved his life.

The roughest warriors were touched by this fraternal solicitude of the king's, and clung to him with passionate devotion.
It was at Rome, and in the case of an ecclesiastical question that Henry IV.'s steady policy, his fame for ability as well as valor, and the glorious affair of Fontaine-Francaise bore their first fruits.

Mention has already been made of the formal refusal the king had met with from Pope Clement VIII.