wife, while they at the same time increased his
exasperation against the rebel Duke.[178]

Montmorency was removed from Castelnaudary to Lectoure, and thence,
still suffering cruelly from his wounds, to Toulouse, reaching the
gates at the very moment when the bells of the city were ringing a
joyous peal in honour of the arrival of the King, who had hastened
thither in order to counteract by his presence any efforts which might
be made by the judges to save his life. The Duke had been escorted
throughout his journey by eight troops of cavalry well armed, his great
popularity in the province having rendered the Cardinal apprehensive
that an attempt would be made to effect his rescue; and while the
glittering train of the sovereign was pouring into the streets amid the
flourish of trumpets and the acclamations of the populace, the
unfortunate prisoner was conveyed to the Hotel-de-Ville, where he was
confined in a small chamber on the summit of the belfry-tower, "so
that," says a quaint old historian, "the ravens came about him to sport
among the stone-crop. A hundred of the Swiss Guards were on duty near
his person night and day to prevent his holding any communication with
the _capitouls_,[179] the citizens, and the public companies of the
great city of Toulouse." [180]

Immediate preparations were made for the trial of the illustrious
captive; Richelieu, who could ill brook delay when he sought to rid
himself of an enemy, having prevailed upon the King to summon a
Parliament upon the spot, instead of referring the case to the
Parliament of Paris, by whom it should fitly have been tried. Nor was
this the only precaution adopted by the vindictive Cardinal, who also
succeeded in inducing Louis to nominate the members of the Court, which
was presided over by Chateauneuf, the Keeper of the Seals, who had
commenced his career as a page of the Connetable de Montmorency, the
father of the prisoner.

As the Marshal-Duke had been taken in arms against the sovereign, and
frankly avowed his crime, his fate was soon decided. He was declared
guilty of high treason, and condemned to lose his head, his property to
be confiscated, and his estates to be divested of their prerogative
of peerage.

Not only during his trial, however, but even after his sentence had been
pronounced, the most persevering efforts were made by all his friends to
obtain its revocation. But Louis, as one of his historians has aptly
remarked, was never so tho