After the first shock of dismay at the prince’s death had passed, the Huguenots were not dispirited. It is true that numbers of the Protestant gentry returned home.[1327] But the Huguenot position was strong in upper and lower Poitou, for the line of the Charente from Angoulême to Saintes was theirs, besides St. Jean-d’Angély, La Rochelle, and the islands of Marins and Oléron.[1328] The admiral rallied his forces at Tonnay-Charente,[1329] which he could do with impunity since the duke of Anjou raised the siege of Angoulême on April 12.[1330] The hope of the court was to prolong the war, since the King controlled most of the towns and the river passages, “while the religion, their conquered country excepted, had but the fields,”[1331] until the resources of the Huguenots would at last become exhausted—money, men, munitions. But the queen of England loaned 20,000 livres to the Protestants, the jewels of Condé and Jeanne d’Albret being taken as security.[1332] Jeanne d’Albret in person directed the foreign negotiations of the Huguenots.[1333] The anxiety of the Huguenots was greatest over the effect which Condé’s death might have upon the foreign assistance which they were looking for, and letters from the prince of Navarre and the other leaders of the Huguenot army in Saintonge earnestly urged the reiters’ advance to the Loire.[1334] Coligny’s hope was by making a detour by way of Cognac and Chalais to reach the Loire and effect a junction with Deuxponts. To his great relief, the prince of Orange and the duke of Deuxponts wrote assuring the admiral of their continued adherence.[1335] As good as his word, Deuxponts, who was at Pont-à-Mousson on January 11, 1569, entered France near Langres, having passed by Joinville, the seat of the Guises in Lorraine, where the old duchess of Guise was then staying,[1336] and advanced upon Dijon where he arrived on April 26.[1337]