Meanwhile the duke had been told of the departure of the fugitives: just as he was going to lay his hand upon the nest, the birds disappeared. Charles and his counsellors were staggered. These energetic citizens would in truth be no longer in Geneva to combat his designs; but it would have been surer, he thought, to put them out of the way either by the sword of the executioner or by a long imprisonment. Charles the Good had often practised both these means with success. In vain did his partisans say, to comfort him, that at least the patriots would not offend him by their presence. Yes, but if they should return--if they should not return alone--if the Swiss.... There were in the Helvetic League confused noises, distant sounds of Reformation and of liberty, which alarmed the Savoyards. Yet they said, if we profit skilfully by the absence of the huguenots, if we properly muzzle the other Genevans, if we establish ourselves firmly in the city, nobody will be able to turn us out. And now, as there was no need to hurry, the duke resolved to put off his entrance for a while. The appeal to Rome had wounded him deeply. To see himself, a sovereign prince, head of the most glorious house in Europe, uncle of the king of France, brother-in-law of the emperor, summoned before the pope by a band of nobodies, greatly incensed the vain and haughty Charles III. Before he enters Geneva, the appeal must be withdrawn. The duke sent orders on this subject to M. de Balleyson, his representative in the city. Then, as if to pass away the time, he urged on the persecution of all the Genevans around him. The Sieur of Bonebouges, brother to the Sieur of Montrotier, at the head of the troops of Faucigny, good soldiers but violent men, plundered the country, seized many respectable people in the environs of the city, and shut them up in the castles of Savoy, where they were grossly maltreated. De Balleyson lost no time in executing his master’s orders. He represented to the principal friends of Savoy at Geneva of what an offence the city had been guilty towards the duke by daring to accuse him before the pope. On the 20th of September the general council was convoked. Alas! those energetic men who had so often been its glory, Hugues and his companions in misfortune, were absent, and nearly all the friends they still possessed in Geneva refused to attend. M. de Balleyson appeared before this shadow of a general council and said: ‘Our lord the duke wishes to learn from the people of this city of Geneva whether they intend to prosecute a certain appeal before the court of Rome.’[374] The mamelukes, who were almost alone in the council, shouted out as if with one voice: ‘It is not our wish to prosecute the said appeal.’[375]