embroil Louis XIII with Anne of Austria--for that
affair was over--but he had to adjust matters for M. de Bassompierre,
who was embroiled with the Duc d'Angouleme.

As to Monsieur, who had begun the siege, he left to the cardinal the
task of finishing it.

The city, notwithstanding the incredible perseverance of its mayor, had
attempted a sort of mutiny for a surrender; the mayor had hanged the
mutineers. This execution quieted the ill-disposed, who resolved to
allow themselves to die of hunger--this death always appearing to them
more slow and less sure than strangulation.

On their side, from time to time, the besiegers took the messengers
which the Rochellais sent to Buckingham, or the spies which Buckingham
sent to the Rochellais. In one case or the other, the trial was soon
over. The cardinal pronounced the single word, "Hanged!" The king was
invited to come and see the hanging. He came languidly, placing himself
in a good situation to see all the details. This amused him sometimes
a little, and made him endure the siege with patience; but it did not
prevent his getting very tired, or from talking at every moment of
returning to Paris--so that if the messengers and the spies had failed,
his Eminence, notwithstanding all his inventiveness, would have found
himself much embarrassed.

Nevertheless, time passed on, and the Rochellais did not surrender. The
last spy that was taken was the bearer of a letter. This letter told
Buckingham that the city was at an extremity; but instead of adding, "If
your succor does not arrive within fifteen days, we will surrender," it
added, quite simply, "If your succor comes not within fifteen days, we
shall all be dead with hunger when it comes."

The Rochellais, then, had no hope but in Buckingham. Buckingham was
their Messiah. It was evident that if they one day learned positively
that they must not count on Buckingham, their courage would fail with
their hope.

The cardinal looked, then, with great impatience for the news from
England which would announce to him that Buckingham would not come.

The question of carrying the city by assault, though often debated in
the council of the king, had been always rejected. In the first place,
La Rochelle appeared impregnable. Then the cardinal, whatever he said,
very well knew that the horror of bloodshed in this encounter, in which
Frenchman would combat against Frenchman, was a retrograde movement
of sixty years impressed upon his