“When I had finished speaking,” says Bassompierre, “_Monsieur le Prince_, who had listened to me attentively, rose and said to the King: ‘Sire, here is an honest man, devoted servant of your Majesty, and jealous of your honour.’ The King rose also, which obliged all the others to rise, and his Majesty said to M. de Bullion; ‘Return to Montpellier and tell the people of the town that I grant conditions to my subjects, but that I do not receive them from them. Let them accept those which I have offered them or let them prepare to be forced to do so.’ And thus the council ended. _Monsieur le Prince_ did me the honour to approach and embrace me and to say aloud so many kind things of me that I was covered with confusion.” There can be no doubt that Bassompierre, who was an honest man and a devoted servant of the Crown, was actuated by what he considered to be his duty in tendering this advice to his sovereign, which had touched Louis XIII on his weakest spot--his exaggerated regard for his own dignity. But it is equally certain that he had committed a disastrous mistake, both from a political and military point of view, in counselling the King to sacrifice the interests of his realm for what Bullion had rightly described as “a mere punctilio.” For, not only was an immediate peace of the most vital importance to the interests of France, both at home and abroad, but the reduction of the people of Montpellier to “entire submission and complete repentance” was a task which, in the most favourable circumstances, could not be effected except at immense expense and at the cost of hundreds of valuable lives. It is indeed amazing that, after the terrible lesson of Montauban, anyone could have been so rash as to embark upon another great siege for reasons so inadequate. * * * * * The siege began in anything but an auspicious manner. In the early hours of September 2, Bassompierre and Praslin advanced against the ridge of Saint-Denis, where the citadel now stands, and carried it without any resistance, since there was only a guard-house there, the occupants of which fled at their approach. Leaving Valençay there with some 1,500 men to hold it, they returned to camp, and, after attending a meeting of the Council, Bassompierre, who had to be up all the following night to superintend the opening of the trenches, went to his tent to snatch a few hours’ sleep. About midday, he was awakened by the sound of heavy firing, and, hurrying out, he saw the troops whom he and Praslin had left on the ridge of Saint-Denis in disorderly retreat, hotly pursued by the enemy.