Bassompierre established himself at Laleu on October 23, where three days later he held a review of his army, several hundred men from which were subsequently detached to go with Schomberg to the Île de Ré. At the beginning of November, while returning from a visit to the King at Aytré, he fell into an ambuscade which the Rochellois had laid for his benefit. His usual good fortune, however, did not desert him and he succeeded in effecting his escape. A day or two later news arrived of the death of the Maréchal de Thémines, who had succeeded the imprisoned Duc de Vendôme as Governor of Brittany. The King offered the vacant post to Bassompierre, but, though this most important and lucrative office, which until the disgrace of Vendôme had generally been reserved for a Prince of the Blood, might well have tempted him, the marshal refused it. “I told him,” he says, “that I rendered very humble thanks for the honour which he did me in deeming me worthy of it, but that, for my part, I did not desire these great governments, which obliged me to reside there, because they were not suited to my disposition and would divert me from the course of my fortune.” * * * * * Meantime, the situation of Buckingham’s army in the Île de Ré was becoming every day more difficult and perilous. It is true that since the treaty which the duke had signed with La Rochelle, a great number of their sick and wounded had been admitted to that town, and they were better provided with provisions; but the weather was cold and wet, and the troops suffered severely in consequence. What was worse was that by October 20 more than 2,000 French troops had succeeded in getting across to the island from the mainland, and had been received within the walls of Fort La Prée and the entrenchments which had been thrown up in front of it, and their numbers might be expected to increase every day. Everything now depended upon the arrival of Holland. If he arrived before the French in the island were sufficiently numerous to take the offensive, and Buckingham succeeded meantime in preventing Saint-Martin from being again revictualled, the place must fall, for by the second week in November he calculated that the provisions of the garrison would be exhausted. If, however, Holland’s arrival were delayed beyond the first days of that month, he dared not, with his steadily dwindling forces, take the risk of having to give battle to superior numbers and would be obliged to abandon the enterprise.