The Royal troops continued their advance through the faubourgs and into the town, the enemy making no attempt to rally, though there was a good deal of desultory firing from the houses, and Nerestang had his right thigh broken by a musket-shot.[133] In less than an hour, however, the town was cleared of the rebels, some of whom took refuge in the château, which surrendered on the following day, while the rest fled towards Angers. Bassompierre was then sent to report the result of the action to the King and to take him the nobles who had been made prisoners. His Majesty, whom he found in company with Condé, Luynes and Bellegarde, “received him with extraordinary cordiality, and M. de Luynes spoke in praise of him to _Monsieur le Grand_.” But when Louis XIII heard that Saint-Aignan was amongst the prisoners, he looked very grave indeed, as did the others, and they consulted together as to what was to be done with him. Then the King informed Bassompierre that, as M. de Saint-Aignan was, not only an officer of the regular army, but Colonel-General of the Light Cavalry, and had been taken in arms against his sovereign, it had been decided that he was to be tried at once by the Keeper of the Seals, who was, with the army, and, in the event of conviction, to be decapitated that very day. And so it seemed as though poor Saint-Aignan had only succeeded in saving his hat at the cost of his head. Happily for him, Bassompierre was determined to save him. “I firmly opposed this decision,” he writes, “and told the King and _Monsieur le Prince_ that, if they treated him in this way, no man of rank among the enemy would allow himself to be made prisoner, from fear of dying by the hand of the executioner; that M. de Créquy and I had received his surrender, and that he was a prisoner of war; that the rank we held authorised us to give him our assurance that he should be regarded as such, and that we were not provost-marshals to cause our captives to be hanged. At the same time, I sent to warn M. de Créquy, who sent word that he would retire from the Ponts-des-Cé and would abandon everything,[134] if he did not receive a promise that the execution would be suspended. We obtained a respite until the morrow, when, the first indignation against Saint-Aignan having spent itself, it was easy to persuade them to abandon their resolution; and the peace which followed accommodated his affair, by the surrender of his charge, which was conferred upon La Curée.”