ancellor, inveighed against Fouquet for four
hours, so violently that he injured his case. His voice was for the
gallows,--but, in consideration of the criminal's rank, he would consent
to commute the cord for the axe. After him, four voted for death; then,
five for banishment. Six to six. Anxiety had now reached a distressing
point. The Chancellor stormed and threatened; but in vain. On the
twenty-fifth of December the result was known. Nine for death, thirteen
for banishment. Saved! "I am so glad," Sevigne wrote to Simon Arnauld,
"that I am beside myself." She exulted too soon. The King was not to be
balked of his vengeance. He refused to abide by the verdict of the
Commission he himself had packed, and arbitrarily changed the decree of
banishment to imprisonment for life in the Castle of Pignerol,--to
solitary confinement,--wife, family, friends, not to be permitted to see
the prisoner, or to write to him; even his valet was taken away.

Thus the magnificent Surintendant disappeared from the world
forever,--buried alive, but indomitable and cheerful. His last message
to his wife was, "I am well. Keep up your courage; I have enough for
myself, and to spare."

"We still hope for some relaxation," Sevigne writes again; but none ever
came from the narrow-hearted, vindictive King. He exiled Roquesante, the
judge who had shown the most kindness to Fouquet, and turned an
_Avocat-General_ out of office for saying that Pussort was a disgrace to
the Parliament he belonged to. Madame Fouquet, the mother, famous for
her book of prescriptions, "Recueil de Recettes Choisies," who had
cured, or was supposed to have cured, the Queen by a plaster of her
composition, threw herself at the King's feet, with her son's wife and
children. Their prayer was coldly refused, and they soon received an
order to reside in remote parts of France. Time seemed to have no
mollifying effect upon the animosity of the King. Six years later, a
young man who attempted to carry a letter from Fouquet to his wife was
sent to the galleys; and in 1676, fifteen years after the arrest, Madame
de Montespan had not influence enough to obtain permission for Madame
Fouquet and her children to visit the prisoner.

This cruel and illegal punishment lasted for twenty years, until an
attack of apoplexy placed the Surintendant beyond the reach of his
torturer. So lost had he been in his living tomb, that it is a debated
point whether he died in Piguerol or not. He has