Charge! If your standards fail you, rally to my white plume; you will find it on the road to victory and honor." At first the fortune of war went against the Huguenots, but the personal courage of the king, who, with "a terrible white plume" in his helmet led his cavalry to the attack, wrested victory from the foe.
[Sidenote: Siege of Paris] From Ivry Henry marched to Paris, the headquarters of the League.

With thirteen thousand soldiers he besieged this town of 220,000 inhabitants, garrisoned by fifty thousand troops.

With their usual self-sacrificing devotion, the people of Paris held out against the horrors of famine.

The clergy aroused the fanaticism of the populace, promising heaven to those who died; women protested that they would eat {226} their children before they would surrender.

With provisions for one month, Paris held out for four.