Then he set fire to the bridge, which was of wood, and intrenched himself on the banks of the river, occupied all the fords higher up, and completely checked any advance of the Spaniards in that direction.  He was, however, wounded in the shoulder, and was obliged to leave the army and to be carried to Pinerolo.  While he was away Leganez attacked the French line from without, and Prince Thomas from within, and the former succeeded in passing twelve hundred horse and one thousand foot into the town.

The French were now closely beleaguered, and began to suffer severely from famine.  In the meantime fresh troops had arrived from France, and although not yet recovered from his wounds, Turenne took the command, and escorted a great convoy of provisions into the camp in spite of the enemy’s efforts to prevent him.  The townspeople were suffering even more severely.  Sorties were made in great force, but were always repulsed, as were the attacks made by Leganez, and on the 17th of September the garrison surrendered, being allowed to march out with their arms.  The Count d’Harcourt returned to France, and Turenne again assumed the command of the army for the winter.

Hector conducted himself to the satisfaction of his general throughout the campaign, but was severely wounded in the last sortie made by the besieged, having been thrown down in a charge of Prince Thomas’s cavalry and trampled upon by the horses, and being taken up for dead when the enemy fell back.

Directly he heard the news Turenne sent his surgeon to examine him.  He reported that he still breathed, but that several of his ribs and his left arm were broken.  He mended but slowly, and Turenne, a month after the surrender of the town, came in one day to see him, and said, “The surgeon tells me that it will be some months before you are fit for service again, and that you will need a period of perfect rest to recover your health.  There is a convoy of invalids returning to France tomorrow, and I think it were best that you should accompany them.  There is no rest to be obtained here, and I know that you will be fretting at being unable to ride, and at your forced inactivity.  I shall give orders that you are conveyed in a horse litter to Sedan, where my brother, the Duc de Bouillon, will gladly entertain you for my sake, and you must remain there until entirely restored to strength.

“I do not think that there will be much doing on this side of the Alps in the next campaign.  Unhappily France has troubles of her own, and will find it difficult to spare more troops in this direction, and without reinforcements we can but act on the defensive.  Though we may capture a few towns, there is small chance of any great operations.  Indeed, methinks that it is by no means unlikely that Prince Thomas, seeing that his effort to rule Savoy in place of his sister-in-law, the duchess, is likely to end in discredit and loss to himself, will before long open negotiations with her.  Therefore you will be losing nothing by going.  It is to the duchess that I shall commend you rather than to my brother, who is unfortunately occupied by public matters, and is at present almost at war with Richelieu.