As usual, the king had recourse to treachery. Disguised as peasants, his soldiers entered the city unperceived. Once inside, they arrested those who were most deeply compromised, and carried out violent reprisals. Houses were plundered, many of the inhabitants banished, and nine put to death. During the War of Religion, Rheims sided with the Catholics. Under the influence of the _Guises_, five of whom were archbishops of Rheims (notably Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, the protector of Rabelais and Ronsard, and founder of the University of Rheims in 1547), the town espoused the cause of the League and opened its gates to the Duc de Mayenne in 1585. It submitted to Henri IV. only after the battle of Ivry, when the Castle of Mars Gate (stronghold of the archbishops) was razed to the ground. Henceforth the archbishops played no political part, and Richelieu put an end to strife by turning the _Guises_ out of the archi-episcopal see. In the 17th and 18th centuries the town lived in peace, with alternations of misery and suffering (caused by plague or famine) and commercial and industrial prosperity. It was at Rheims that the first French newspaper, the "Gazette de France," printed by Godard in 1694, appeared. During the Revolution, Rheims received the new ideas with enthusiasm. It furnished a great number of volunteers to withstand the invasion, and on August 14th, 1792, the Legislative Assembly proclaimed that the city "_had deserved well of the country_." Under the Restoration its industry developed. In August, 1830, the people, who were favourably to the Revolution of July, overturned the cross of the "_Calvaire de la Mission_," erected in 1821 by the ultra-Catholic party, and in its place set up a funeral urn with the inscription, "To the brave men who died for liberty on the 27th, 28th and 29th days of July, 1830." The population accepted the monarchy of July, but without enthusiasm. The Second Empire witnessed a remarkable development of business activity which, after the momentary stoppage caused by the War of 1870 and the Prussian occupation (_see military section_), made of Rheims, at the end of the 19th century, one of the great commercial and industrial cities of France. The population increased from about 30,000 (in 1792) to 59,000 (in 1865) and to more than 115,000 in 1912. When the War of 1914 broke out, the rich and ancient city was still as _La Fontaine_ had described it: "_No town is dearer to me than Rheims, The Honour and Glory of our France._" [Illustration: RHEIMS, FROM AN OLD ENGRAVING (1622)] =MILITARY HISTORY= If the military and commercial situation of Rheims destined it, from early times, to be a great city, it also exposed it to the greed of ambitious foreigners, and opened the road to invasion.