The middle classes, in fact, not only at La Rochelle, but in the other Huguenot towns of France, feared war. The party had now only two chiefs, Rohan and his brother Soubise. Bouillon was dead; Sully was old and less than ever disposed to revolt; La Force and Châtillon had accepted the bâton of marshal of France as the price of their loyalty; La Trémoille was about to change his religion. The nobles were deserting the cause. The revolt was, besides, difficult to justify. Louis XIII had certainly refused to demolish Fort Louis, but he had only promised to do so when he should judge its maintenance to be no longer necessary; while the fortifications recently constructed on Richelieu’s advice at Brouage, Marans, and on the Îles de Ré and d’Oléron, might be explained as much as by fear of the English as by hostility towards La Rochelle. The most clear-sighted amongst the citizens felt that the Government entertained hostile intentions, but their apprehensions were their only proofs. The Protestants of the South were as undecided as those of La Rochelle. Rohan, determined on war, did not venture to convene a General Assembly of the Churches, but contented himself with summoning deputies from the Cévennes, and those towns of Lower Languedoc upon whose support he could rely, to meet at Uzès. This assembly, inflamed by the duke’s exhortations, invited him to resume the post of general-in-chief of the Protestant forces, and decreed the taking up of arms and an alliance with England. At the same time, the deputies “solemnly protested before God that they wished to live and die in obedience to the King, their legitimate and natural prince.” Rohan hoped, by the example of these towns, to draw the rest of the Reformed Churches into the struggle; but in this he was disappointed, as most of them condemned his action and decided to stand aloof. Having landed the remainder of his troops, with the artillery and stores, an operation which was conducted in so leisurely a manner that it occupied several days, Buckingham advanced upon Saint-Martin, occupied the town without opposition, and proceeded to reconnoitre the citadel, a recently-constructed fortress of considerable strength crowning a steep rock above the town. He would have well been advised had he begun by the reduction of La. Prée, a small fortress to the south-east of Saint-Martin, but this he neglected to do. It was an omission which he subsequently had good reason to regret.