“I said to him,” continues Bassompierre: “‘It is too late now to think of that. Must we abandon the ballet because one of the masks does not happen to be ready? Allow us to dance it, Sire, and all will go well.’ ‘Will you answer to me for it?’ said he. ‘It would be very rash for me to guarantee a thing so doubtful,’ I replied, ‘but I will answer to you that we shall perform it to the end with honour, or I shall be dead or a prisoner.’ ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘but if we fail, I shall reproach you.’ ‘You may call me anything if we fail,’ I replied, ‘except the Marquis d’Uxelles (for he had failed to pass at Saint-Pierre). But I shall take good care. Only allow us to do it, Sire.’ ‘Let us go, Sire,’ said the Cardinal to him. ‘From the demeanour of the marshal, I augur that all will be well. Be assured of it.’” Somewhat reluctantly Louis XIII yielded, and Bassompierre forthwith gave the order for the troops to advance. He and Créquy dismounted and, sword in hand, led the French Guards and the regiments of Navarre and d’Estissac against the barricades. At the same time, with irresistible _élan_, the Musketeers, under Tréville, and the Swiss, under Valençay, escaladed the heights on either side of the gorge, dislodged the enemy, gained the top of the rocks, poured a withering flanking-fire into the defenders of the barricades, and then charged down upon them. Finding themselves attacked simultaneously in front and on both flanks, the Piedmontese were seized with panic; the three barricades were carried almost without resistance, and the enemy pursued almost to the gates of Susa, being badly cut up on the way by Sault’s regiment, who fell upon them as they were retreating. The Duke of Savoy and the Prince of Piedmont were within an ace of being made prisoners, and only contrived to escape through the bravery of a Spanish officer, who, with a small body of men, threw himself between them and the Musketeers who were about to seize them and was wounded and taken.[121] The victory only cost the French some fifty men. Amongst the wounded were Valençay and Schomberg. The latter received a musket-shot in the abdomen, but the wound was not a dangerous one, and the marshal was soon convalescent. As the pursuing French came within range of the cannon of the citadel of Susa, they were heavily fired upon. “But,” says Bassompierre, “we were so excited by the combat and so joyous at having obtained the victory, that we paid no attention to these cannon-shots.”