In proportion as they advanced, La Baume breathed more freely. After four-and-twenty hours of cruel fright, the travellers arrived at St. Claude. Pierre de la Baume was at the summit of happiness.[751] The day after his departure, the news of the bishop's flight suddenly became known in Geneva, where it caused a great sensation. 'Alas!' said the monks in their cloisters, 'Monseigneur, seeing the approaching tribulation, has got away by stealth across the lake.' The patriots, on the contrary, collecting in groups in the public places, rejoiced to find themselves delivered by one act both from their bishop and their prince. At the same time the Savoyard soldiers, posted round Geneva, were greatly annoyed; they had been on the watch night and day, and yet the bishop had slipped through their fingers. To avenge themselves, they swore to arrest Besançon Hugues on his return. The latter, making no stay at St. Claude, reappeared next morning at daybreak in the district of Gex, when he soon noticed that gentlemen and soldiers were all joining in the chase after him. The bells were rung in the village steeples, the peasants were roused, and every one shouted: 'Hie! hie! the traitor Besançon!' It seemed impossible for him to escape. Having descended the mountain, he followed the by-roads through the plain, when suddenly a number of armed men fell upon him. Hugues had great courage, a stout sword, and a good horse; fording the water-courses, and galloping across the hills, he saved himself, 'as by a miracle,' says his friend Balard.[752] [Sidenote: THE HIRELING FORSAKES THE SHEEP.] The Genevans were very uneasy about him, for they all loved him. The drums beat, the companies mustered under their officers, and they were about to march out with their arms to protect him, when suddenly he arrived, panting, exhausted, and wounded. They would have liked to speak to him, and, above all, to hear him; but Hugues, hardly shaking hands with his friends, rode straight to his own house and went to bed; he was completely knocked up. The syndics went to his room to investigate the circumstances of which he had to complain. But erelong the brave man recovered from his fatigue, and the city was full of joy. The bishop's flight still further increased their cheerfulness: it snapped the bonds of which they were weary. 'The _hireling_,' they said, 'leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, when he seeth the wolf coming.'[753] 'Therefore,' they added, 'he is not the shepherd.' [Footnote 743: Registres du Conseil du 12 juillet 1527.] [Footnote 744: Roset MS. _Chronol._ liv. ii. ch. xv. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 455.] [Footnote 745: Beaumanoir, _Coutumes de Beauvaisis_, p. 61. Guizot, _Histoire de la Civilisation en France_, iv. p. 72.] [Footnote 746: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 464.] [Footnote 747: Registres du Conseil des 30 juillet et 25 août 1527. _Journal de Balard_, pp. 125, 126.]