Bassompierre, who early in April had had an exceedingly narrow escape of his life, a cannon-shot from the town having killed three soldiers to whom he was speaking and covered him with earth, was busily employed during the days which followed the King’s return to the army in erecting a formidable battery on the Chef de Baie, a promontory at the north-western extremity of the canal, opposite Coreilles, for the arrival of the English fleet was now daily expected. To the profound mortification of Charles I, who considered the deliverance of La Rochelle a matter of personal honour, the difficulty of obtaining both money and men had delayed the fitting out of the expedition until the spring was well advanced; but at the end of April it sailed from Portsmouth, under the command of the Earl of Denbigh, Buckingham’s brother-in-law, and on May 11 appeared off the Île de Ré. “On Thursday the 11th,” writes Bassompierre, “M. de Mailsais (the new Archbishop of Bordeaux),[113] and several others, being come to dine with me, I brought them at noon to the battery of Chef de Baie, at which time the English fleet appeared off Baleines.[114] It was perceived by a sentinel who had been posted for that purpose in the belfry of Ars, in the Île de Ré, and Toiras, on being informed, sent in all haste to give the signal from the Fort de la Prée which he had arranged with me: three cannon-shots and a thick smoke. I caught sight of it also at the same moment, from the battery of the Chef de Baie, where I stood with the gentlemen of whom I have spoken, and ordered the signal to be given to warn our armies on sea and land, which was three cannon-shots from the said battery, and sent to warn the Cardinal (who had come to lodge on my side of the town, at a château called La Saussaye, half a league from La Fons). Then our naval armament, under the command of the Commandeur de Valençai, set sail, and advanced towards the promontory of Saint-Blanceau. At two o’clock in the afternoon, the advance-guard of the English appeared near Saint-Martin-de-Ré. The King was forthwith warned of it by the Cardinal, who came to Coreilles with him to witness the approach of the naval army of the enemy. The Cardinal went to lodge at Aytré, in order to look to matters on that side. The whole fleet, which was advancing in three lines, was composed of fifty-two vessels, to wit, four of the King’s great ships-of-war, seven other vessels of five hundred tons burden, and forty-one little vessels of one hundred tons and less, both fire-ships and ships laden with provisions, so far as one could conjecture. But what made us quite confident that they would be unable to effect anything, and that our fleet would be incomparably stronger than theirs, was that neither the King’s ships-of-war nor the other great vessels would find sufficient