o
far from approving of severity, had himself narrowly escaped being
involved in the massacre, and had owed his safety mainly to the fact that
he was in command at the arsenal.

The shrewd Rochellois, however, while they greeted the king's assurances
with all outward show of credit, were not willing to be duped. They
listened respectfully to the king's envoys, and professed themselves his
most devoted subjects; but they begged to be excused from receiving
Marshal Biron as their governor until the troops of Strozzi should have
been removed from their dangerous proximity to the city, and until the
fleet should have set sail from Brouage. Nor, indeed, could Biron himself
obtain better conditions, when, having sought an interview with the
deputies of La Rochelle outside of the walls, he entreated them, with
sincere or well-feigned emotion, to forestall the ruin impending over
them.[1263] In vain did he humor their claim, dating from regal
concessions and long prescription, that La Rochelle need receive no
garrison but of her own municipal militia.[1264] In vain did he offer to
make his entry with but one or two followers, and promise that, when they
had duly submitted, he would secure them from injury at the hands of the
royal troops, and would relieve them of the presence of a fleet. The
citizens were inflexible. The experience of Castres, where lately the
credulous inhabitants had inconsiderately admitted a governor sent them
by the king, and had paid for their folly with their lives, confirmed them
in the resolution rather to die with sword in hand than to be slaughtered
like sheep.[1265]

Two months (September and October) passed in fruitless
negotiations--precious time, which the citizens put to good service in
preparing for the inevitable struggle. It was not until the eighth of
November that the first skirmish took place, in which one of two royal
galleys sent to reconnoitre the situation of La Rochelle was captured and
brought into harbor by some Huguenot boats that had sailed out intending
to secure the neighboring Ile de Re for the Protestant cause.[1266]

[Sidenote: Mission of La Noue.]

Meantime the court, reluctant to undertake an enterprise so formidable as
the regular siege of La Rochelle seemed likely to prove, resorted to
pacific measures, and resolved to employ for the purpose a person the most
unlikely to be selected by Roman Catholics. This was none other than the
famous Francois de la Noue, a Protes