THE LAST SUMMONS, OR AN ORATION SENT to the Inhabitants of the Town of Rochel, To move them to yield the Town unto his Majesty, and to obey his Commandments.  
Written by Monsieur le Marquis de Berguille.  
1621.   

THE LAST SUMMONS OR an Oration sent to the Inhabitants of the Town of Rochel.  
MOnsieur. You that make profession to understand, and to know the Scriptures well; if it be true, I wonder how you persevere in your rebellion and disobedience, seeing that therein, it is expressly said, he that disobeyeth the commandments of Kings, holy contradicteth the commandment of God, whose lively Images they are; know for certain, that the Sovereign Majesty of God, doth so much abhor all those that revolt and rebel against their Sovereign Princes; that if his mercy, did not hinder the force and effects of his justice, he would suddenly discharge the arrows of his wrath, to exturpe and destroy all those, that are the perturbators of the will and pleasure of there Sovereign Kings.  
Cast your eyes upon him, against whom you are disobedient, (it is nothing but shame that withholds you from it) I beseech you, to the end that you may put away from you, all those that love the trumpet of Rebellion and were into your ears, and thereby to divert you from so dangerous an enterprise, consider, with whom you have to do.  
It is your King, Louis the Just; Son to Henry the Great, who already in his young age, is as great as his father, great in power, great in courage, great in counsel, great in friends, and specially in these affairs, and most great in justice, the point, which thereby is to be decided consisteth herein, to know whether he ought to be obeyed of his subjects: or not, in a thing whereas he useth no violence whatsoever.  
Then it is to this great King that you are disobedient and rebellious, against his Majesty's commandments, who in this great and puissant Realm, is beloved, feared, and obeyed of all men, unless it be of a handful of men, who being provoked and incited by diverse interests and pretences, under a false pretence Religion seek to molest and disturb the state of the land.  
Think not to oppose your arms against his, your forces against his, and your Soldiers against his: In what places can you maintain yourselves against him, but that the same places will put you in mind of your faults? will you always be those only that resist and oppugn his Majesty in his Realm? will you always in some of his Provinces war against your Prince, his Towns, and his name of a King: cannot be think you, cause your arms to fall over off your hands, and dompt the courage of your heart? For my part, I am not of opinion, neither can I be persuaded, that any of you once so much as imagine, that you are able to raise a sufficient army, to withstand that which his Majesty in a month's time is able to bring into the field. Remember I pray you, what past and fell out the last year, in those commotions, that seemed to spread and extend themselves over the whole Realm, which was a strong and puissant complete as it then fell out.  
The King issued out of Paris, accompanied only with two thousand men, but his Princely presence, that was worth a hundred thousand, in such manner in all places drew the courages and hands of every man, unto him that in less than a month's time, having pacified the whole Realm of France, he had so great a force about him, that if then he would have set upon your Town of Rochel, and other places of refuge which you hold by his favour, to execute that, which now you feign to fear, he should not have found any one that once durst to have conceived so much as a thought to shut their gates against him.  
When Kings march through their Realms; they are like hail stones, lying upon the tops of hills and mountains, which the further you go from them, still wax thick and fearful unto those, upon whom they fall.  
But if he had no other power, than his guards of Frenchmen Swissers and Scots, and his four regiments of Soldiers, continually entertained, that have no other occupation, than the skill how to beat and kill their enemies. It were sufficient against you.  
Remember also that when this great Monarch would raise new troops, when he would make new regiments, he can and is able to do it with such facility and promptness, that you shall sooner see the ensigns displayed in the air, sooner hear the drums beat in the fields, sooner hear the horses neighy: The cannons roar, and the soldiers ready to assail you, than you could imagine or once conceit that any army were raised against you.  
I would for your sakes that your Town of Rochel were an impregnable Rock, and Saint john Dangely so strong as that the Angels were not able to overcome it. I would for your sakes that all the places wherein you enclose yourselves, were not able to be undermined, not able to be scaled, not to be battered, and to conclude, invincible, wherein I grant you more than you yourselves demand, and much more than is true: The strongest of them being no other, but such as ten thousand men, within the space of 6. weeks would force you to yield.  
It is not as it was in times past, the manner of besieging of times at this present is brought to such a fashion and perfection, that there is not any one, which is impregnable, and may not be won. If you had seen how men use to raise Trenches, how they make mounts of earth; how they fill up deep ditches, how they draw rivers dry, and stop channels of water. And to conclude, if you had seen how men enclose and press upon Towns that are besieged, you would never say nor report that yours are impregnable: They are of to good metal to be such; the fields, the vines which environ them, always give means to those that besiege them to berry them therein.  
There is nothing impossible to our victorious Monarch Lovis the thirteenth within this Realm, where all men, employ all their forces to execute his will, for I can assuredly tell you, that if you enter not into that obedience, which you owe unto his Majesty, and give him not free entrance into his Town of Rochel, that you will thereby give his Majesty cause; in short time to raise up & erect a great number of forces about your Towns of refuge, according to military Art, furnished with men, Artillery, and all manner of provisions, that shall so straightly on all sides enclose you about, that you must either burst or yield.  
In the mean time you shall want victuals, you shall consume your powder and bullets, you shall try the insolence of soldiers, the bravadoes of Captains, the mutinies and murmoring of the poor people, less furnished with provision for the mouth, then with riches.  
What will you expect after all this, but only, that having abused and refused the King's mercy, you shall try and feel his justice: It makes me quake and tremble for you, when I call to mind, the speedy execution of the most culpable, and those that were the raisers & seducers of such rebellion and disobedience, which will then be done.  
But I assured myself, and am verily persuaded, that when you shall once behold your King, as just, as martial, and armed magnanimity, run from rank to rank, as a forerunner of the victory, to animate his troops to fight, what countenances you will show, and what will be your behaviours; but only that of a miserable company of sheep appointed to a bloody slaughter, altogether trembling, all bleating, all desirous to run away, but by means of your fearfulness, having not the hardiness to do it, so that we cannot be persuaded, that if you did but once call to mind and think upon all these things together, you could be so hardy as to withstand this funeral blow: the best that you could do is, to shut yourselves up, like fearful sheep, within 3. or 4. of your strongest Towns; and there, being obstinately bend, seek to save your infortunate lives, behind the ramparts and walls of the same.  
But good Lord, what remedy is this, to have all the rest of your faction, enclosed with you in Rochel, Saint john Dangely, Montauban, Nismes, and in such Towns as you have made choice of, leaving and abandoning the others, as less strong, or to many in number, to be kept by so small a number of mutuous persons, leaving within them all the nest of the reformed sixth, who wiser than you, and it may be more affected to their Religion, will content themselves, (obeying the King) to deplore and lament your near approaching unfortunate state. But do I say shut up in those places, what think you thereby to do? O, it is possible you persuade yourselves to weary the army Royal, by the tongues of a siege which you pretend to endure.  
Do you set before your eyes the happy deliveranc, that you have tried in like distresses in the former wars? You say and blaze it abroad, that Rochel is as strong as ever it was, that Saint john Dangely is able to defend itself, that all your Towns are in better state, to resist and withstand the forces of a puissant army, than ever they were, that it is which you say, and the same wherewith you nourish the stubbornness of these among you, that have least insight in these matters: Whose eyes, if they be capable to conceive it, I must open, and cause them to see, that they are lulled a sleep with deceitful words, which wholly lead them unto the path of their most certain and assured destruction.  
Open your eyes then (I pray you) but you specially, that are engaged in this dangerous enterprise; call your duties to remembrance, and show forth that obedience which lawfully you owe to our King, you are his Subjects, he is your Prince, ordained here on earth to govern and rule over you. There is nothing in his Kingdom, whereof he is not to have the full and free possession. The Town wherein you are enclosed is as much his as all the rest: Therefore it makes me wonder, to see that you are so much blinded, as to be rebellious against, and obstinate to execute his Royal commandments.  
I summon and invite you once again, to know yourselves, and to yield that unto him and into his hands, which belongeth unto him; not that his Majesty will in any sort takeaway your notable and ancient privileges, but rather to the contrary, if he seeth you become Loyal and obedient Subjects, he will give you many others.  
Send an honourable number of Deputies to his Majesty, humbly to crave pardon of him for all the rebellions, that you have made; and I am assured, that his clemency is such and so great, that he will accept of your submission, pardon your offences, and forget all your fault. If you will do it speedily, and in the mean time, I beseech God to give you the grace, to humble yourselves, and to obey the King.  
1621.