9. Alluding to a celebrated battle fought near Montargis, in 1587,
when Guise, with very disproportioned forces, surprised and cut to
pieces a large army of German auxiliaries, who had advanced into
France to join the king of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. Upon that
occasion, the Duke of Guise kept his resolution to fight a profound
secret till the very day of the attack, when, after having dined,
and remained thoughtful and silent for a few minutes, he suddenly
ordered the trumpets to sound to horse, and, to the astonishment of
the Duke of Mayenne, and his other generals, who had never
suspected his intention, instantly moved forward against the
enemy.--_Davila_, lib. viii.
10. The king of Navarre (Henry IV.), by his manifesto, published in
1585, after discussing sundry points of state with the leaguers,
defied the Duke of Guise, their loader, to mortal combat, body to
body, or two to two, or ten to ten, or twenty to twenty. To this
romantic defiance the Duke returned no direct answer; but his
partizans alleged, that as the quarrel betwixt the king of Navarre
and their patron did not arise from private enmity, it could not
become the subject of single combat. _Davila_ lib. vii.]
11. This alludes to the defacing the Duke of York's picture at
Guildhall; an outrage stigmatized in the epilogue to "Venice
Preserved," where Otway says,
Nothing shall daunt his pen, when truth does call;
No, not the picture-mangler at Guildhall.
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