while La Rochelle had closed her gates to the English, and the old
Duchess of Rohan had been obliged to leave the town in order to bring
Soubise in with her. "Before taking any resolution," replied the
Rochellese authorities to the entreaties of the duke, who was pressing
them to lend assistance to the English, "we must consult the whole body
of the religion of which La Rochelle is only one member." An assembly
was already convoked to that end at Uzes; and when it met, on the 11th of
September, the Duke of Rohan communicated to the deputies from the
churches the letter of the inhabitants of La Rochelle, "not such an one,"
he said, "as he could have desired, but such as he must make the best
of." The King of England had granted his aid and promised not to relax
until the Reformers had firm repose and solid contentment, provided that
they seconded his efforts. "I bid you thereto in God's name," he added,
"and for my part, were I alone, abandoned of all, I am determined to
prosecute this sacred cause even to the last drop of my blood and to the
last gasp of my life." The assembly fully approved of their chief's
behavior, accepting "with gratitude the King of England's powerful
intervention, without, however, loosing themselves from the humble and
inviolable submission which they owed to their king." The consuls of the
town of Milhau were bolder in their reservations. "We have at divers
time experienced," they wrote to the Duke of Rohan, whilst refusing to
join the movement, "that violence is no certain means of obtaining
observation of our edicts, for force extorts many promises, but the
hatred it engenders prevents them from taking effect." The duke was
obliged to force an entrance into this small place. La Rochelle had just
renounced her neutrality and taken sides with the English, "flattering
ourselves," they said in their proclamation, "that, having good men for
our witnesses and God for our judge, we shall experience the same
assistance from His goodness as our fathers had aforetime."

M. de La Milliere, the agent of the Rochellese, wrote to one of his
friends at the Duke of Rohan's quarters, "Sir, I am arrived from
Villeroy, where the English are not held as they are at Paris to be a
mere chimera. Only I am very apprehensive of the September tides, and
lest the new grapes should kill us off more English than the enemy will.
I am much vexed to hear nothing from your quarter to second the exploits
of the Engli