Now, would you not expect that, this happy event being attained, all in the place should have united together with one mind to strengthen the walls and prepare against a fresh assault? But it wan’t so, for there was among the French officers certain timorous and politic persons that, like the children of Israel concerning Moses, said of my lord marquis that since he was now absent for near three weeks without returning, doubtless he and his ships were taken by the Dutch, and that ’twere best to come to terms with the King of Gulconda while we might. I verily believe that the chief concernment for these gentlemen was that they might spite and injure my lord, in thus giving up his city in his absence; but they did not venture to say this openly, but spake of having gentlewomen in their company, and that for their sake they must seek to make peace. But sure such men as these could know naught of the stuff whereof that intrepid lady, of whom they principally spake, was made, for she, on hearing of their murmurs and the propositions they put forward, turned pale with anger, and called a council to assemble immediately. Now to this council I was admitted only by favour, and by my lady’s command, as one appointed by my lord her father to a weighty post; but truly ’twas a brave sight to see all these officers assemble, in their laced clothes and great perukes, and Madam Heliodora, mighty fine in black satin and very rich white lace, sitting at the head of the table like a queen. ’Tis my belief that these gentlemen conceived that they had been summoned together for to deliberate upon articles of accommodation with the enemy, and sure they must have been prodigiously amazed when Madam Heliodora arose and spake without one of ’em saying a word. Speaking with an elegance of language and a nobility of tone I have never known equalled, she said that she had been appointed to the oversight of the city by the marquis her father, and that she would continue to hold it for his lordship and for the king. Certain persons (she said) had dared to think and talk of surrender--let them know that she, Heliodora de Tourvel, would die among the falling ruins of the town before she would suffer the word to be so much as mentioned in her hearing. If any one should venture to advocate an accommodation, let him stand out, and he should be arrested and imprisoned to await the marquis’s return, when his lordship would know how to deal with him. If they had anything further to say, let them say it; but if not, then in God’s name let ’em go back to the walls and maintain their posts against the Moors. And they, having listened stupefied, being took by surprise as much as was I by the fiery courage of the lady, did depart in silence. But shortly after comes Colonel Laborde again into the chamber, and saith, after his stiff fashion--