The magistrates, seeing the priests deserted, regained their courage. There was not a moment to be lost. The council assembled in the middle of the Molard, the ushers keeping off the crowd; the syndics were the first to protest against the spilling of blood; many influential councillors supported them, and the majority of the people seemed to declare in favour of peace. Then the premier-syndic, Nicholas du Crest, Claude Baud, and Pierre de Malbuisson, attended by several captains, advanced to treat with De la Maisonneuve and his friends. The foremost of the huguenots, seeing them approach, thought that the battle was beginning, and one of them, a prompt and energetic man, arranging a piece of artillery, began to take aim at the centre of the group, and got ready to apply the match. 'The shot would have made a terrible breach,' says Froment. This rapid movement alarmed those who were approaching; on all sides they shouted out, 'Peace is made.' At these words the gunner stopped, the soldiers drew back, the syndics came forward on one side, Baudichon and his friends on the other, and the two parties conferred together.[693] Confidence was not yet restored. It was agreed to give hostages: three notable men were given up on each side, and among the six was a canon named Guet. Immediately the sound of the trumpet was heard in the city, and the herald proclaimed: 'Every man shall lay down his arms and return quietly home, without quarrel or dispute, under pain of being hanged; and no one shall sing song or ballad, provoking to quarrel, under pain of being whipped and banished.' The most diverse opinions prevailed at that moment in the city. The priests and fervent disciples of Rome could find no comfort. Wishing to destroy the Reformation at any cost, they thought it very christian-like to put the reformed to death. They were particularly envenomed against the captain-general; some of them publicly called him a traitor. 'This peace vexes the christians sorely,' writes Sister Jeanne; and accordingly they were heard exclaiming: 'We ought now to _despatch them from the world_, in order to be no more frightened or vexed on their account.' 'To say the truth,' adds the devout nun, 'it would have been better than letting them live.'[694]