The siege began on 5 December, and at 4 AM on the following day the Allies attempted to capture the town by storm, but the night attack was repulsed. Browne therefore brought up his artillery, which entrenched themselves at
Golfe-Juan and from there began bombarding Antibes. During the week of 19–25 December the town was also subject to a naval bombardment by a
British squadron commanded by
John Byng. Browne again offered terms on 26 December, but de Sade once more rejected them, supposedly responding with the celebrated words: Two days later, on 28 December, Browne made another attempt to seize the town directly, this time concentrating the attack on
Fort Carré and deploying his
Croatian shock troops to lead the assault, but again the besiegers were repulsed. The Austrians were therefore forced to revert to their previous strategy of bombarding Antibes into submission. The siege dragged on into the new year, but by this point the Allies had received the disturbing news that the garrison they had left behind in Genoa had been expelled by a rebellion on 6 December. The Genoese resurgence imperiled the army's lines of communication from Italy and threw the invasion of France into jeopardy. Browne prevaricated for a few weeks, but his mind was made up for him on 1 February 1747, when the Antibes garrison was reinforced by sea with troops commanded by the
Chevalier de Belle-Isle. The arrival of these reinforcements dashed the last hopes of capturing Antibes, and so on the same day the Allies lifted the siege and began the retreat to Italy. A
Second Siege of Genoa followed later in the year. By the time the Austrians withdrew, their artillery had fired 2600 bombs and 200
firepots into Antibes, levelling 350 houses and also gutting
Antibes Cathedral, though the latter was subsequently rebuilt. ==References==