Had we delayed another half hour, to gather a larger force, we should have been too late." "Tell us all about it," the prince said.
"This seems to have been a gallant and well-managed affair, Admiral." Philip related the whole circumstances of the affair; how the townspeople had been heavily punished, and the chief men taken as hostages, and the peasants compelled to assist to convey the property of the Huguenots to Laville; also the subsequent negotiations, and the escape of all the Huguenots from Niort; and how the troop under him had smartly repulsed, with the loss of over thirty men, the men-at-arms from the city.
"A gallant enterprise," the prince said.

"What think you, Admiral ?" "I think, indeed, that this young gentleman and his cousin, the young Count of Laville, have shown singular prudence and forethought, as well as courage.

The matter could not have been better managed, had it been planned by any of our oldest heads.
That they should, at the head of their little bodies of men-at-arms, have dispersed the cowardly mob of Niort, is what we may believe that any brave gentleman would have done; but their device of taking the priests and the other leaders as hostages, their boldness in summoning the authorities of Niort, under the threat of hanging the hostages and capturing the town, is indeed most excellent and commendable.

I heard that the number of fugitives from Niort was nearly six hundred, and besides these there were, I suppose, those from the villages." "About two hundred set out from the villages, sir." "Eight hundred souls.

You hear that, gentlemen?
Eight hundred souls have been rescued, from torture and death, by the bravery and prudence of these two young gentlemen, who are in years but youths.
Let it be a lesson, to us all, of what can be done by men engaged in a good work, and placing their trust in God.