TheCodeBreakers
France, were putting up a stiff defense. They cannonaded Conde from a
tower and contemptuously rejected his demands that they surrender,
saying that they would die instead. Conde brought up five big cannon
from Albi, a dozen miles away, and on Sunday ranged them in an
ominous line facing Realmont.
That same day his soldiers captured an inhabitant of the town who
was trying to carry an enciphered message to Huguenot forces outside.
None of Conde's men could unriddle it, but during the week the prince
learned that it might be solved by the scion of a leading family of Albi
who was known to have an interest in ciphers.
Conde sent him the cryptogram. The young man solved it on the spot.
It revealed that the Huguenots desperately needed munitions and that, if
they were not supplied, they would have to yield. This was news indeed,
for despite the destruction of a number of houses by the Catholic
annaabi.ee 
