The dislike the king conceived for him was such that he found fault with him about everything." The king at last took his departure, and the cardinal, who had attended him "without daring, out of respect, to take his sunshade to protect him against the heat of the sun, which was very great that day," was on his return taken ill with fever.

"I am so downhearted that I cannot express the regret I feel at quitting the cardinal, fearing lest some accident may happen to him," the king had said to one of his servants: "tell him from me to take care of himself, to think what a state my affairs would be in if I were to lose him." When the king returned to La Rochelle on the 10th of April, he found his army strengthened, the line of circumvallation finished, and the mole well advanced into the sea; the assault was becoming possible, and the king summoned the place to surrender.

[_Siege de La Rochelle.

Archives eurieuses de l'Histoire de France,_ t.iii.

p.