reached the ears of the
bewildered favourite, who instantly resolved to redeem himself by some
more successful achievement. He accordingly ordered the troops to march
upon and besiege Monheur, an insignificant town on the Garonne, which
was feebly garrisoned by two hundred and sixty men, and which was in
consequence sure to fall into his hands. As he had foreseen, the place
soon capitulated, but the late reverse had rendered Louis less
accessible than ever to the claims of mercy; and although by the terms
of the treaty he found himself compelled to spare the lives of the
troops, numbers of the inhabitants were put to death, and the town was
sacked and burned.[65] This paltry triumph did not, however, suffice to
reinstate the Connetable in the good graces of his royal master, who
continued to indulge in the most puerile complaints against his former
favourite; and the latter's mortification at so sudden and unexpected a
reverse of fortune so seriously affected his health that, while the
ruins of the ill-fated town were still smouldering, he expired in an
adjacent village of a fever which had already caused considerable
ravages in the royal army.

When intelligence of the decease of De Luynes was communicated to the
King he did not even affect the slightest regret, and the courtiers at
once perceived that the demise of the man upon whom he had lavished so
many and such unmerited distinctions was regarded by Louis as a
well-timed release. So careless indeed did the resentful monarch show
himself of the common observances of decency that he gave no directions
for his burial; and, profiting by this omission, the enemies of the
unfortunate Connetable pillaged his residence, and carried off every
article of value, not leaving him even a sheet to supply his
grave-clothes. The Marechal de Chaulnes and the Due de Luxembourg, his
brothers, with whom at his first entrance into life he had shared his
slender income, and whom in his after days of prosperity he had alike
ennobled and enriched, looked on in silence at this desecration of his
remains, lest by resenting the outrage they should incur the displeasure
of the King; and it is on record that the Abbe Rucellai and one of his
friends alone had the courage and generosity to furnish the necessary
funds for embalming the body and effecting its transport to its last
resting-place.[66]

The resolute position still maintained by the Protestants chafed the
arrogant temper of Louis XI