"As recompense and consolation for all their losses," says the cardinal, "they carried off Soubise to England.

He has not been mentioned all through this siege, because, whenever there was any question of negotiation, no one would apply to him, but only to Buckingham.

When there was nothing for it but to fight, he would not hear of it.

On the day the English made their descent, he was at La Rochelle; nobody knows where he was at the time of the assault, but he was one of the first and most forward in the rout." Soubise had already been pronounced guilty of high-treason by decree of the Parliament of Toulouse; but the Duke of Rohan had been degraded from his dignities, and "a title offered to those who would assassinate him, which created an inclination in three or four wretches to undertake it, who had but a rope or the wheel for recompense, it not being in any human power to prolong or shorten any man's life without the permission of God." The Prince of Conde had been commissioned to fight the valiant chief of the Huguenots, "for that he was their sworn enemy," says the cardinal.

In the eyes of fervent Catholics the name of Conde had many wrongs for which to obtain pardon.
The English were ignominiously defeated; the king was now confronted by none but his revolted subjects; he resolved to blockade the place at all points, so that it could not be entered by land or sea; and, to this end, he claimed from Spain the fleet which had been promised him, and which did not arrive.