e was in the toils, would admit of no such concession.

The agents of the Cardinal were instructed to assure Monsieur that he
had no hope of escape for himself save in an entire submission to the
will of the sovereign; and this argument proved, as he was aware that it
would do, all powerful with the individual to whom it was addressed;
while he was, moreover, assured that his own pertinacity upon this point
could only tend to injure the interests of Montmorency, which might be
safely confided to the clemency of his royal master, and that his
personal submission and obedience must exercise the most favourable
influence upon the fortunes of both.

Easily persuaded where his own interests were involved, Gaston
accordingly ceased to persist, and the young and gallant Duke was
abandoned to the vengeance of the Cardinal. Louis XIII was at Lyons when
he received intelligence of the defeat of Monsieur; and he was no sooner
assured that the rebels had not taken a single prisoner, than he
determined to make an example of every leader who had espoused their
cause whom he might encounter on his journey. Ere he reached his
destination three noble heads fell by the hand of the executioner; but
still his vengeance was not sated; nor did the exalted rank and
brilliant reputation of Montmorency serve for an instant to turn him
from his purpose. Private animosity closed all the avenues of mercy; and
the indiscretion of one meddling spirit sealed the death-warrant of the
gallant prisoner. It is asserted that when he was captured Montmorency
wore upon his arm a costly diamond bracelet, containing the portrait of
Anne of Austria, which having been perceived by Bellievre, the
commissary of Schomberg's army, who was greatly attached to the noble
captive, he affected, in order to conceal the circumstance from less
friendly eyes, to consider it expedient to subject the prisoner to a
judicial interrogatory preparatory to his trial; and when he had seated
himself beside him, ostensibly for this purpose, he succeeded with some
difficulty in wrenching the miniature from its setting. But,
notwithstanding all his precaution, the desired object was not
accomplished without exciting the attention of some individual who
hastened to apprise the Cardinal of what he had discovered, who at once
communicated the fact to Louis, embittering his intelligence by comments
which did not fail to arouse the indignation of the King, and to revive
his jealousy of his