"All the Rochellese shall go out together," was the answer returned to Madame de Rohan.

She determined to undergo with her brethren in the faith all the rigors of the siege.

"Secure peace, complete victory, or honorable death," she wrote to her son the Duke of Rohan: the old device of Jeanne d'Albret, which had never been forgotten by the brave chief of the Huguenots.
At the head of the burgesses of La Rochelle, as determined as the Duchess of Rohan to secure their liberties or perish, was the president of the board of marine, soon afterwards mayor of the town, John Gutton, a rich merchant, whom the misfortunes of the times had wrenched away from his business to become a skilful admiral, an intrepid soldier, accustomed for years past to scour the seas as a corsair.

"He had at his house," says a narrative of those days, "a great number of flags, which he used to show one after another, indicating the princes from whom he had taken them." When he was appointed mayor, he drew his poniard and threw it upon the council-table.

"I accept," he said, "the honor you have done me, but on condition that yonder poniard shall serve to pierce the heart of whoever dares to speak of surrender, mine first of all, if I were ever wretch enough to condescend to such cowardice." Of indomitable nature, of passionate and proud character, Guiton, in fact, rejected all proposals of peace.