On Thursday, February 1, 1526, one hundred and sixty mounted citizens rode out of the city to meet the prelate: ‘Why, they are all huguenots,’ said Biolley, an ardent mameluke and secretary to the council, as he saw them pass. There was however something else. On each side of the bishop rode Saleneuve and Balleyson, both devoted servants of the duke, and Charles, distrusting La Baume, expected that he would obey them as if they were his guardians. The prelate loved neither his Highness nor the citizens of Geneva, ‘but only to fill his purse, that he might empty it afterwards in playing _gaudeamus_,’ says a contemporary. The two chamberlains, however, kept so close to him that he could not speak freely to anybody. He behaved politely towards them, and seemed to be their very humble servant; but as soon as he arrived at the bridge of Arve, where Savoy ended and the Genevese territory began, the bishop spurred his horse, and rode in front of his ‘guardians,’ as a sign that he was lord and master. Then assuming his right position, he obliged them from that moment to speak to him uncovered.[395] The Savoyard nobles were determined, however, not to lose their prey. The next day (February 2), after dinner, as the two guardians were keeping the bishop ‘at a gaming-table,’ it was whispered him that Robert Vandel wanted him. Vandel, one of the Genevese liberals, possessed all his confidence, and the bishop desired much to see him; but Saleneuve and Balleyson continued their game, and Pierre de la Baume knew not what to do to escape them. Unable to hold out any longer, he rose, alleging some very natural pretext, and hastened to a little room at the back of the house, where Vandel was. ‘Well, Robert,’ said the prelate rather sharply, ‘they tell me that you have made a declaration in the city contrary to my authority.’--‘You have been deceived,’ replied Vandel, who read him the protest of the hôtel-de-ville. ‘Well, well,’ said the prelate, ‘there is no great harm in that.’ Vandel then represented to him that if Geneva owed a double obedience, one to the duke, another to the bishop, as the Council of Halberds had determined, the first would certainly swallow up the second. Pierre de la Baume had no doubt of it.--‘There is somebody,’ he said, lowering his voice, ‘very glad of my coming, but he will be vexed afterwards.... I will not lose an inch of my jurisdiction, were I to spend all my property in defending it. I will have no alliance with the Swiss, however; this I promised the duke.’ Vandel represented to him that the Genevans sought this alliance only to protect the episcopal sovereignty against the usurpations of Savoy; and then, knowing the prelate’s avarice, he added shrewdly: ‘When the alliance with the Swiss is concluded, we will proceed against the duke’s creatures, we will confiscate their property, and, my lord ... that will do you no harm.’--‘What are you saying, Robert?’ Vandel explained his meaning more fully.