than was required of him; while the Queen, anxious to secure the
condemnation of Madame de Verneuil, and at the same time to intimidate
the favourites by whom she might be succeeded, appeared in person as one
of the accusing witnesses. Nor did Henry, who had already decided upon
the pardon of the Marquise, attempt to dissuade her from this
extraordinary measure; and it is even probable that as the design of the
King was merely to humble the pride of the haughty Marquise, in order to
render her more submissive to his authority, he was by no means
disinclined to suffer Marie to give free vent to her indignation
and contempt.

The Parliament had nominated as its commissaries Achille de Harlay, the
first president,[286] and MM. Etienne Dufour and Philibert Turin,
councillors, to whose interrogatories, however, the Comte d'Auvergne at
first refused to reply, alleging as his reason the pardon which had been
accorded to him by Henry during the past year. In this emergency M.
Louis Servin,[287] the King's Advocate, was deputed to offer to his
Majesty the remonstrance of the commissaries, and to represent that as
the accused had already been convicted of conspiring, first with Maturin
Carterie, and subsequently with the Duc de Biron, he was unworthy of
pardon on this third occasion; while the most imperious necessity
existed that an example should be made, in order to secure the safety of
their Majesties and the Dauphin, which, moreover, as a natural
consequence, involved the tranquillity and welfare of the state.

To this appeal the King replied that the abolition accorded to the
accused on the two former occasions had been granted with a view of
inducing him to return to his allegiance, but that since it had failed
to produce the desired result it could form no pretext for his escape
from the penalties of this new crime, and that should he persist in
refusing to reply to the questions put to him by his judges his silence
must be construed into an acknowledgment of treason; upon which M.
d'Auvergne immediately endeavoured to redeem his error by revealing all
the details of the past plots, as well as those of the one in which he
was now implicated.

Madame de Verneuil, who had been summoned to appear at the same time,
excused herself upon the plea of indisposition; and it was asserted that
she had caused herself to be bled in order that the temporary delay in
her examination thus secured might enable her, ere she appeared befo