[4] From Coutré to Vivonne, a distance of about two and a half leagues. [5] Tallemant des Réaux, little benevolent in general towards Bassompierre, renders him justice on this occasion. “At the Sables d’Olonne,” says he, “he acquired reputation, risked his life, and showed the way to the others; for he plunged up to his neck in the water.”--_Historiette de Bassompierre._ [6] Amongst those who honoured themselves by their efforts to protect the women was the Keeper of the Seals, De Vic. Here is the tribute of a contemporary chronicler:-- “I will tell you on this matter an act of charity on the part of the Keeper of the Seals, who ordered one of his people, so soon as the town was taken, to ransom the girls and women whom he found in the hands of the soldiers, in order that by this means their honour and their lives might be saved. This he did of those whom he met, and brought them to the said Keeper of the Seals, to the number of fifteen. They were conducted to his lodging, as to a place of refuge and asylum; and some were sent back under escort to the places from which they had fled to take refuge in Négrepelisse on the approach of the Royal Army of his Majesty, while others were conducted to a place of safety.” _Le fidelle historien des affaires de France_ (_Paris_, MDCXXIII.). The Duc de Chevreuse and Roger, valet of the King’s wardrobe, also ransomed several women, and an officer named Pontis saved the honour of a young girl of eighteen. [7] Carmain, called indifferently Caraman, Carmaing, Carman, or Cramail, had been a Huguenot town for nearly fifty years. The principal inconvenience which it caused the inhabitants of Toulouse was the fact that it afforded the few Protestants of the capital of Languedoc facilities for the public exercise of their religion. [8] Claude de Bullion, Seigneur de Bonnelles. He was successively counsellor to the Parlement of Paris, Counsellor of State, and _maître des requêtes_ and was appointed Surintendant of Finance in 1632. He died in 1646. [9] Combalet had recently married Marie Madeleine de Vignerot, afterwards Duchesse d’Aiguillon, Richelieu’s favourite niece. [10] He was a son of Zamet the financier, and colonel of the Picardy Regiment. [11] Bassompierre had protected Roucellaï after the death of Concini, whose protégé he had been, and had lately obtained for him a rich abbey. [12] “The Sieur de Bassompierre, since made Maréchal de France for his merits, ran thither, sword in hand, with some soldiers of the Piedmont Regiment.... In the midst of the disorder into which our men had been thrown, the Maréchal de Bassompierre showed his judgment and his courage.”--_Histoire du Maréchal de Toiras._