o be premature, as the next courier who arrived in the French capital
from Rome brought the fatal tidings of his death. On the day succeeding
his elevation he had made his solemn entry into St. Peter's; on Easter
Sunday the triple tiara was placed upon his brow, and the public
procession to St. John de Lateran took place on the 17th; but on
returning from this ceremony the new Pontiff complained of
indisposition, and on the 27th he breathed his last; and was in his turn
succeeded, on the Day of Pentecost (29th of May), by Paul V.[300]

About this time the King, wearied of the perpetual coldness of Madame
de Verneuil, which not even his excessive clemency had sufficed to
overcome, made a last attempt to compel her gratitude by forwarding
letters under the great seal, authorizing the Comte d'Entragues to
retire to his estate of Marcoussis, and re-establishing both himself and
his son-in-law in all their wealth and honours, save the posts which
they had held under the crown, and their respective governments.
D'Auvergne, however, was still a prisoner in the Bastille, where, after
lashing himself into fury for a few months, he adopted the more prudent
and manly alternative of study, and thus contrived to educe enjoyment
even from his privations.

Yet still the haughty spirit of the Marquise scorned to yield. She was
indeed living in her own house, the gift of the monarch against whom she
exhibited this firm and calm defiance, and surrounded by luxuries, the
whole of which she owed to his uncalculating generosity; but she could
not, and would not, forget that she was, nevertheless, an exile from the
Court, and a prisoner within the boundary of her estate, while the
Queen, whom she had affected to despise, was triumphing in her
disgrace. Nor was it until the month of September, when Henry, who was
pining for her return, finally declared that no proof of culpability
having been brought against her, she must be forthwith duly and fully
acquitted of the crime with which she had been charged, that the icy
barrier was at last broken down, and the haughty Marquise condescended
to acknowledge herself indebted to her sovereign. The King did not
satisfy himself with this mere declaration, though he had caused it to
be legally registered by the Parliament; but, fearful lest some further
revelations might be made, by which she might become once more involved,
he moreover strictly forbade his Attorney-general to take any new steps
whatev