ess father
would be put out of the way, in order that the child might inherit his
dignities. At another time, in the very chamber of King Charles, the
opinion had been boldly uttered, that, so long as a single member of the
house of Bourbon should survive, there would always be war in France. Nor
had the young prince dared to complain of these menaces.[1375]

It was no part of Catharine de' Medici's plan, at this juncture, to wreak
her vengeance for the blow that had been aimed at her authority, either
upon her son or upon her son-in-law. The Montmorencies, also, though
suspected and long since the objects of jealousy, ultimately escaped with
little difficulty. It is true that the eldest brother, Marshal Francois de
Montmorency, was enticed to the court, as was also another marshal, M. de
Cosse, and that both were thrown into the Bastile. But the younger
Montmorencies, Thore and Meru, had escaped, while their more energetic
brother Marshal Damville, was too firmly fixed in the governorship of
Languedoc, to be removed without a struggle. It was hardly prudent to
drive so influential a family to extremities. Moreover, Catharine was too
wise to desire the utter destruction of a clan whose authority might on
occasion be employed, as it had often been in the past, as a counterpoise
to the formidable power of the Guises.

[Sidenote: Execution of La Mole and Coconnas.]

Some victims of inferior rank were needed. They were found in the persons
of Joseph Boniface de la Mole and Hannibal, Count de Coconnas, who, with
one M. de Tourtray, expiated their error and that of their superiors, on
the Place de Greve. The cruel procedure known as the administration of
justice in the sixteenth century has no more striking illustration than in
the barbarous torture, including the terrible trial by water, inflicted
upon these wretched men. By such means it was not difficult to extort
admissions which the prisoner was likely to retract at a subsequent time.
Consequently it is not quite clear, even with the full record before us,
how far La Mole and Coconnas were really implicated. As for the sufferers
themselves, there was little about them to call forth our special
sympathy. La Mole, of handsome appearance, but of cowardly disposition,
was a firm believer in the magic that passed current in his day, and was
questioned on the rack respecting the object of a waxen figure found among
his effects. He admitted he had employed it for sorcery, to a