The battle had hardly begun when the Duc de Retz, one of the Queen’s commanders, seized with the idea that some treacherous negotiations were going on in the background, threw up her cause and rode off the field with 1500 men. The rest of the little army, about 2500 men against 14,000, kept up an uncertain struggle along the road and the bridges through some sweltering hours of the August day. A few hundred lives were lost, and it was not till evening that the royal army found itself in possession of the river branches and the little town of Ponts-de-Cé. Even then the wounded governor of the castle, M. de Bethancourt, held out there till the next morning with a garrison of ten men. Few of the Queen’s officers showed such a spirit. Long before the battle or rout was over, César, Duc de Vendôme, son of Henry IV., came galloping back into Angers with the news that all was lost. “He entered her presence,” says Richelieu, “_avec un épouvantement épouvantable_, saying, ‘Madame, I wish I were dead.’ On which one of her ladies, who did not lack wit replied, _fort à propos_, ‘If that be really your wish you should have stayed where you were....’ The Duc de Vendôme was promptly followed by all the other chiefs, except the Comte de Saint-Aignan, who was taken prisoner.” So ended “la drôlerie des Ponts-de-Cé,” as the wags called it. Now was the time for the peacemakers. After a few distracted hours, during which, says Richelieu, “fear was absolutely mistress of all hearts and reason had no place,” a treaty, quite amazingly favourable to the Queen-mother, was drawn up by himself and the King’s envoys. He must have wondered at the success of his own diplomacy. At first, looking round on his terrified party, on the helpless city with a royal army at her gates, he had advised Marie de Médicis to pack up her jewels and ride off by night with a few hundred light horse, fording the Loire and gaining the free country beyond, where she might make her own terms with her enemies. But the unexpected moderation of the King and Luynes made everything easy. The treaty of Angoulême was confirmed; the Queen’s partisans were amnestied; the Ponts-de-Cé with their defences were restored to her; her debts were paid; she had full liberty to live where she pleased, so long as she remained in good understanding with the King and his Ministers.