Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/59

COLIGNI At the battle of Dreux, fought in that year, the prince of Cond6 was taken prisoner ; and after this prince's death at the battle of Jarnac (1569), Coligni gathered the remains of the Protestant army, and was soon able to confront again the Catholics at Moncontour. In this last encounter he was defeated ; but although severely wounded, and unable to ride on horseback, he led the retreat from his litter, preserving such good order and presenting such an unbroken front to the enemy that the Catholics themselves became favorable to a termination of the war, and peace was actual- ly made a few months afterward. It has been very justly said of Coligni that he was never more to be dreaded than after a defeat, and he has been called the "general of retreats." After the treaty of St. Germain in August, 1570, Coligni reappeared at the court, where he submitted to Charles IX. plans for the im- provement of his government and the direc- tion of his foreign policy. Charles seemed to receive his advice with great deference, but he was surrounded by courtiers who would not tolerate the influence of a Huguenot, and the great admiral was des- tined to be the first vic- tim of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Two days previous to the consummation of this tragedy, Coligni had been shot at from a house belonging to the Guise family by a man named De Maurevel, a creature of the queen. Charles IX. called on the wounded warrior, seemed to sympathize with his misfortune, and swore that the mur- derer should not escape punishment ; but his mother persuaded him that the Huguenots were about to attempt a mas- sacre of the Catholics, and that they must be an- ticipated. The admiral was abandoned to the same fate which overcame all the other Hugue- nots. A band of murderers, led by Behme, a German in the service of the duke of Guise, invaded the admiral's house. On entering his room, they were at first subdued by the pres- tige of his presence ; but Behme, soon recover- ing his presence of mind, stabbed him in the stomach with a boar spear and threw the body into the court, where the duke himself was in waiting. This young prince had always, but unjustly, accused Coligni of having been an ac- complice in his father's murder, and could only be satisfied by his death. The head of the un- fortunate hero was brought to Catharine, who had it embalmed and sent to Rome. His lacer- ated remains were dragged through the streets, COLIMA 55 and at last placed on the gallows at Montfaucon where it is said Charles IX. went to look at them, accompanied by his courtiers. Some faithful servants of Coligni carried them away during the night, at the peril of their lives, and his cousin Montmorency had them secretly buried in Chantilly. In 1786 Montesquieu transferred them to his estate of Maupertuis, where he dedicated a chapel and a monument in honor of the admiral. After the revolution, the latter was removed to the musee des momt- ments francais. Coligni left memoirs of his own time, but they were destroyed. The only work of his which has been preserved is his delation du siege de St. Quentin. An essay entitled Souvenirs Jiistoriques sur Vamiral Coligni, sa famille et sa seigneurie de Chdtil~ lon-mr-Loing, was prepared in 1858 by M. Becquerel, a member of the French academy, and read before that body. COLIMA. I. A state of Mexico, between lat. 18 and 19 30' 1ST., and Ion. 102 40' and 104 20' W., bounded N". by Jalisco, E. and S. E. by Michoacan, and S. W. by the Pacific; area, Colima. 2,393 sq. m. ; pop. in 1869, 48,649. It has a coast line of about 100 m. Its surface is gen- erally level, no part of it, excepting a few mountain peaks, rising more than 1,000 ft. above the sea. The climate is very hot, and the soil produces largely. Coffee, tobacco, cotton, cacao, indigo, vanilla, various fruits, and the mulberry grow to perfection. The inhabitants are chiefly Indians. The volcano of Colima, which is in the state of Jalisco, is 12,000 ft. high, and forms the S. W. extremity of the chain which traverses Mexico from E. to W. For 40 years it had been inactive, and was supposed to be extinct ; but on July 12, 1869, it began to smoke, and a few weeks later to pour forth a stream of pumice stone intensely heated, which spread for miles and covered hundreds of acres. It was still in eruption in 1873.