Rincourt had quietly gone up again into the town with his two troops and his prisoners by the castle gate, about three o'clock in the morning. He had not lost more than fifty men, killed, wounded, or strayed. Forcia returned to the camp about ten o'clock in the morning. But from the top of the donjon, at the first glimmering of daylight, the governor had seen the troop of Imperialists defiling in the direction of the posts that had been taken. Without an instant's delay, placing himself at the head of four companies of foot soldiers, fresh and ready for the struggle, and of his three hundred horsemen, and after having fired several volleys on the besieger's works, he courageously sallied forth by the ravelin and rushed impetuously upon the trenches. The enemy, taken by surprise, without a commander, and out of heart, fled, and Rincourt succeeded in spiking the guns of the two foremost _places d'armes_, spiking and throwing down the mortars along the slopes, breaking the gun-carriages, overthrowing the gabionades, and taking a quantity of workmen's tools. When Forcia returned, it was to learn this fresh disaster. His captains murmured loudly. He called them cowards and ignoramuses, and they retorted sharply, and abuse was lavished on both sides. Happily for Forcia a messenger came from Galas that evening enjoining him to raise the siege of Roche-Pont and to fall back upon the Saône without an hour's delay. Saint-Jean-de-Losne had held out and had suffered no damage; the Imperialists, surprised by the inundations, and fearing to be cut off by the French army, determined on returning home. If that French army had been led by a Rantzau and a Rincourt, not a German would have repassed the frontier; but the Duke of Weimar and the Cardinal de la Valette, who might have destroyed the invaders, were by no means energetic in the pursuit. The Imperialists, however, lost in this expedition, by which they hoped to gain the most brilliant advantages, all their baggage, a good part of their artillery, and a third of their force. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 52: See Fig. 59.] [Footnote 53: See Fig. 59.] [Footnote 54: Bombs, invented by the Dutch in the beginning of the seventeenth century, were already used in sieges.] [Footnote 55: See Fig. 59.] [Footnote 56: See Fig. 59.] CHAPTER XV. _THE TOWN OF LA ROCHE-PONT IS FORTIFIED BY M. DE VAUBAN._