rrison be
introduced. La Rochelle, in particular, having repulsed every assault of
the best army that could be brought against it, was acknowledged
invincible by the exemptions accorded to it in common with Nismes and
Montauban. It was hardly by such expectations that Charles had been
prevailed upon to throw down the gage of war to his subjects of the
reformed faith.

[Sidenote: The siege and famine of Sancerre continue.]

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Sancerre, not even named in the edict,[1308]
had been sustained under appalling difficulties by the confident hope of
assistance from the south. But the hope was long deferred, and they grew
sick at heart. The prospect was already dark enough, when, on the second
of June, a Protestant soldier, who had made his way into the city through
the enemy's lines, brought the depressing announcement that no aid must be
expected from Languedoc for six weeks. As but little wheat remained in
Sancerre, the immediate effect of the intelligence was that liberty was
given to some seventy of the poor to leave the city walls. At the same
time the daily ration was limited to half a pound of grain. A week later
it was reduced to one-quarter of a pound. Not long after only a single
pound was doled out once a week, and by the end of the month the supply
entirely gave out. The beginning of July reduced the besieged to the
necessity of tasking their ingenuity to make palatable food of the hides
of cattle, next of the skins of horses, dogs, and asses. The stock of even
this unsavory material soon became exhausted; whereupon, not very
unnaturally, parchment was turned to good account. Manuscripts a good
century old were eaten with relish. Soaked for a couple of days in water,
and afterward boiled as much longer, when they became glutinous they were
fried, like tripe, or prepared with herbs and spices, after the manner of
a hodge-podge. The writer who is our authority for these culinary details,
informs us that he had seen the dish devoured with eagerness while the
original letters written upon the parchment were still legible.[1309] But
the urgent necessities of their situation did not suffer the half-famished
inhabitants to stop here. With the proverbial ingenuity of their nation,
they turned their attention to the parchment on old drums, and subjected
to the skilful hands of cooks the discarded hoofs, horns, and bones of
animals, the harness of horses, and even refuse scraps of leather. There
se