The Government determined on the reduction of La Rochelle, and a formidable army was despatched thither, under the command of Anjou; and the “converted” Bourbons were ordered to accompany it. The unhappy Condé must have felt that his cup of humiliation was indeed filled to overflowing when he found himself marching against the stronghold of Protestantism--against those brave citizens amongst whom he counted so many personal friends--beneath the banner of the man who, after causing his father to be murdered, had robbed him of the affection of his wife. When the siege began, he courted danger with the eagerness of a man weary of life; but, as not infrequently happens in such circumstances, the balls passed him by, and, though men fell fast around him, he himself remained unscathed. La Rochelle offered an heroic resistance, and at the end of four months the royal army had lost nearly 20,000 men, including the Duc d’Aumale, and was no nearer success than when the trenches were opened. In the meanwhile, Anjou, thanks to the dexterity of his mother’s diplomatic agents, had been elected King of Poland; and, on the pretext that it was undesirable that the Polish Ambassadors should find him engaged in besieging a Protestant town, acceptable terms were offered to the Rochellois, and the siege was raised. A month later (July, 1573), the Edict of Boulogne granted the Huguenots even better terms than had been promised them by the Peace of Saint-Germain. The new King of Poland seemed in no hurry to take possession of his throne, and manifested very little enthusiasm for what he regarded as a kind of exile, far removed from the Court of the Valois and the pleasures which he held so dear. He had become so desperately enamoured of the Princesse de Condé that the prospect of parting from her was extremely distasteful to him, and he also feared, that, in the event of the death of Charles IX.--the unhappy King, who had been a changed man since the St. Bartholomew, was now in consumption, and it was obvious that he had not long to live--his absence might result in his younger brother, François, Duc d’Alençon, seizing the throne. These considerations led him to linger in Paris until the end of September; and it was only when the King informed him that, “if he did not go of his own free will, he would make him go by force,” that he took his departure.