Of course, all was now anxiety in the city; and, though the generals did everything in their power to keep up the spirits of the Bordelais, assuring them that the breach was not practicable, that internal works should be thrown up during the night to remedy the evil, and that they themselves, with their own followers, and the volunteers from the town, would undertake to make good their defence against all the troops which could be brought to act upon that point,--the people evidently lost heart; tumultuous meetings were held in different parts of the city; and I acknowledge that the only choice left for us appeared to me, either to be given up by the inhabitants as a sort of peace-offering to the Court, or, at least, to die in the breach, defending a town that was no longer defensible. Such, I believe, was the general opinion also of the principal officers and gentlemen engaged in the cause of the Princes; and it became a very difficult question how to act. Nor were the Bordelais themselves more decided. A number of generous voices were raised against the very idea of delivering up the noblemen, who had trusted them, to their bitter enemies; but the great multitude, which never knows any mean between rashness and timidity, called loudly upon their rulers to make peace with the Court at every sacrifice. From this unpleasant situation both parties were suddenly and unexpectedly relieved. While the magistrates were in debate in one place, and the generals were in debate in another, and while the people, collected in every street and market-place, were murmuring at their fate, and shouting against those who had brought it upon them, the news suddenly reached us, that a deputation from the Parliament of Paris had arrived at the gates, offering to negotiate a treaty between the defenders of Bordeaux and the besieging force. Every one caught gladly at the idea; a suspension of hostilities was immediately granted, and deputies both from the city and the generals returned with the Parisians to the town of Bourg, at which place the whole Court was assembled. The Queen, timid and vacillating, did not understand or believe how completely the city was in her power. Mazarin, unwilling to bring upon himself the overwhelming odium of destroying such a number of the noblest families in France as were then cooped up in the city, did not press for any hard conditions; and I rather suspect that the Maréchal de Meilleraie, having a great number of friends amongst the besieged, rested satisfied with feeling that he had the city in his power, if he were forced to proceed, without making known the full advantage of his situation to those who might have been inclined to use it ungenerously.