In effect the Sieur de Montbel de Vérey, with his seven hundred foot-soldiers and four hundred horse, dispatched secretly by Francis I., with a personal object, to the support of Geneva, had arrived in the valley of St Claude. This was in the middle of December. The intrepid Mangerot, disgusted at the cowardice of his allies, had remained alone at his post; and he had done so specially to oppose the French. Taking four hundred men with him, he climbed the mountains, and found from ten to twenty feet of snow in the upper valleys. De Vérey's Italian cavalry could not advance and his foot-soldiers were almost frozen. All of a sudden, at the turn of a road, a discharge of musketry spread terror and disorder in that disorganized band. The intrepid De Vérey, accompanied by seven horsemen, dashed through the enemy, and on the 14th of December eight men, the only survivors of nearly twelve hundred, arrived at the gates of Geneva.[684] Nägueli, the Bernese deputy, fully comprehending the gravity of the circumstances, departed the same day. They soon learnt with regret that all the Sieur de Vérey's men-at-arms had either been cut to pieces or dispersed in the snows and forests of the mountains; at the same time La Sarraz, proud of his victory, once more beleaguered the city, and swore that he would put an end to its independence and heresy. The fortunes of Geneva were overcast, and some asked if this was how God saved those who followed His Word. On the 17th of December, at the moment when the frightful news arrived, William Farel went to the council and said: 'Most honored lords, the chief thing is that we should all be converted to God, and that you should make arrangements that the people should renounce sin and hear the Word of the Lord. It is because God knows that it is of no use to entice by mildness those who sleep, that He now strikes you with great blows of His hammer in order to arouse you.' That holy exhortation made a deep impression on the council, and the same day the officers of the state published throughout the city that 'all men should go on the morrow and other days to the church of St. Pierre and invoke the help of God.' The next morning, the Genevese, assembling before the Most High, cried to Him by the voices of His servants.[685] [Sidenote: CLAIMS OF FRANCIS I.]