This important council assembled, but instead of two hundred citizens, three hundred and twenty met together. This sitting was to be a festival; everybody desired to be present. It was known that Hugues would speak: the respect they felt for the great citizen and his companions in misfortune, the adventures he had to relate, mixed up (it was reported) with strange facts, excited interest and curiosity. Hugues rose to speak: there was deep silence: ‘You know, sirs,’ he began, ‘that five or six months ago, on the morrow of Holy Cross (September 15, 1525), we left here in great haste by different roads; without communicating with one another, not knowing where to go to escape the rage of the most illustrious duke, Monseigneur of Savoy. We were warned by friends that, on the demand of certain persons in this city, the prince was resolved to take us and put us ignominiously to death, because we had resisted innovations opposed to our liberties. Ah! sirs, that was no child’s play, believe me. The archers and agents of my lord of Savoy pursued us as far as St. Claude, from St. Claude to Besançon, and beyond.... We had to travel day and night in the woods, through wind and rain, not knowing where to go in quest of safety.... At last we considered that we had friends at Friburg, and thither we went.’ The citizens, riveting their eyes on Hugues, did not lose a word of his narrative and of the details which he added. They seemed to bear him company through those woods and mountains, among the ravines and snow; they fancied they heard behind them the tramp of the armed men in pursuit of them.... What struck them was not only the epic element in the flight and return of these free men, of which ancient Greece would doubtless have made one of the finest myths in her history; it was in an especial manner the sovereign importance which these acts had for them. During those sacred days, Geneva and her destinies had turned on their axis; her gates were opened on the side of light and liberty; the flight, the residence at Berne and Friburg, and the return of Hugues and his companions, are one of the most important pages in the annals of the city. Hugues continued: he told them how Friburg and Berne had seen no other means of securing their liberties than by receiving them into their alliance.... ‘Here are the letters duly sealed with their great seals,’ said the noble orator, presenting a parchment. ‘They are written in German; but I will tell you their substance, article by article, without deceiving you in any--on my life.’ He read the act of alliance, and added: ‘Sirs, my comrades and I here present promise you, on our lives and goods, that the said citizenship is such. Consider, sirs, if you will ratify and accept it.’ The assembly testified its approbation with thanks to God, and resolved to convoke a general council for the next day.[404]