“The Cardinal, who sat above me, said to me: ‘Give it, in God’s name, and do not argue any longer.’ Upon which I said to the King:-- “‘Sire, since you absolutely insist on my giving my opinion, it is that your rights and those of your crown would be utterly destroyed if, by this act, you renounce the sovereignty you claim over the Genoese, and that you ought to receive them bareheaded as your subjects, and not covered as republicans.’ “Then the King rose up in great anger and told me that I was laughing at him, and that he would teach me that he was my king and my master; and other things of the same kind. As for me, I did not open my mouth to utter a single word. The Cardinal pacified him and persuaded him to follow the general opinion, which was that the Genoese ambassadors should be covered at the audience. In the evening we went to the King’s concert; he did not say a word to the others, from fear of speaking to me, and did nothing but find fault.” A day or two afterwards the King had repented of this childish display of temper, and, by way of making his peace with Bassompierre, sent him nine boxes of Italian sweetmeats. * * * * * On April 4 peace with England was signed at Paris. Charles I had vainly endeavoured in the negotiations which preceded it to exercise in favour of Rohan and the Huguenots the intervention which Richelieu had refused to permit at La Rochelle. But the French Government was inexorable, and he was constrained to abandon the Protestants, notwithstanding their complaints and imprecations. On the side of Italy matters were less satisfactory. The defensive league against Spain which Richelieu had planned did not materialise; while Philip IV’s ratification of the treaty for the evacuation of Mantua and Montferrato did not arrive; and it was evident that he and Charles Emmanuel intended to evade its stipulations. The King and Richelieu therefore determined to crush the Huguenot rebellion by a single vigorous blow, and then to resume, if need be, the offensive in Italy. On April 28 the King left Susa to return to France; and on May 11 the Cardinal followed, accompanied by Bassompierre, leaving Créquy at Susa with 6,000 men. The Duke of Savoy was warned that the French would remain in occupation until the treaty had been formally ratified by Philip IV. The bulk of the Royal army had already crossed the Rhône, and 50,000 men were overrunning Languedoc and Upper Guienne. Richelieu’s plan of campaign was to send four corps to lay waste the country around Montauban, Castries, Nîmes and Uzès, the principal towns which the Protestants still held, so as to render these places incapable of sustaining a siege, while the King in person, with the rest of the army, was to march from the Rhône to the Tarn across the Cévennes, reducing on their way the smaller Huguenot strongholds in that part of the country.