Siege of La Rochelle begins--Immense difficulties of the undertaking--Unwillingness of the great nobles to see the Huguenot party entirely crushed--Remark of Bassompierre--Courage and energy of Richelieu--His measures to provide for the welfare and efficiency of the besieging army--The lines of circumvallation--Erection of the Fort of La Fons by Bassompierre--The construction of the mole is begun and proceeded with in the face of great difficulties--Responsibilities of Bassompierre--The Duc d’Angoulême accuses the marshal of a gross piece of negligence, but the latter succeeds in turning the tables upon his accuser--Louis XIII returns to Paris, leaving Richelieu with the title of “Lieutenant-General of the Army”--Critical state of affairs in Italy--Unsuccessful attempts to take La Rochelle by surprise--Intrigues of Marie de’ Medici and the High Catholic party against Richelieu--The King rejoins the army--Guiton elected Mayor of La Rochelle. The departure of the English left Richelieu face to face with La Rochelle, “like a lion with his prey.” But the Cardinal was well aware that it was a prey which could not be secured without a long and terrible struggle. With its strong walls, covered on two sides by marshes and on a third by the harbour, and its brave and hardy population, largely composed of seafaring men inured to perils and hardships, La Rochelle was one of the most difficult places to subdue which it was possible to imagine. Old men remembered how the Duc d’Anjou (afterwards Henri III) had besieged the town for months after the St. Bartholomew, and had had nothing to show for his trouble but the graves of 20,000 of his soldiers, and predicted that Louis XIII and Richelieu would meet with no better fate. In fact, so long as La Rochelle retained command of the sea, it was deemed impregnable. Richelieu, appreciating the immense difficulties of the enterprise, would fain have avoided it altogether; but the alliance of the Rochellois with the English had left him no alternative, and, once committed to it, he was resolved to carry it through, cost what it might. For this siege, in which, as he said, “he had to conquer three kings, those of France, England, and Spain,” he set aside all other work, and concentrated upon it all the resources of his genius. For this he closed his eyes momentarily to the death-struggles in Germany, to the Austrian menace on the eastern frontier, and to the intrigues of the Dukes of Savoy and Lorraine, and contented himself with merely holding Rohan’s rebellion in the South in check the while he was preparing to strike his decisive blows elsewhere.