ple, I should cease to be a King!" [183]

From any other sovereign than Louis XIII a revocation of the sentence
just pronounced against one so universally beloved as Montmorency might
well have been anticipated, but the son of Henri IV was inaccessible to
mercy where his private feelings were involved; and not only did he
resist the entreaties and remonstrances by which he was overwhelmed, but
he even refused to suffer the Duchesse de Montmorency, the Princesse de
Conde, and the Duc d'Angouleme--the wife, sister, and brother-in-law of
the prisoner--to approach him. He was weary of the contest, and eager
for the termination of the tragic drama in which he played so
unenviable a part.

While all was lamentation and despair about him, and the several
churches were thronged with persons offering up prayers for the
preservation of the condemned noble, the King coldly issued his orders
for the execution, only conceding, as a special favour, that it should
take place in the court of the Hotel-de-Ville, and that the hands of the
prisoner should not be tied.[184]

Thus, on the 30th of October, the very day of his trial, perished Henri
de Montmorency, who died as he had lived, worthy of the great name which
had been bequeathed to him by a long line of ancestry, and mourned by
all classes in the kingdom.

The unfortunate Marie de Medicis, who received constant intelligence of
the movements of the rebel army, had wept bitter tears over the reverses
of her errant son; but she had no sooner ascertained that by the Treaty
of Beziers he had pledged himself to abandon her interests, than her
grief was replaced by indignation, and she complained vehemently of the
treachery to which she had been subjected. With her usual amiability,
the Archduchess Isabella sought by every means in her power to
tranquillize her mind, representing with some reason that the apparent
want of affection and respect exhibited by Gaston on that occasion had
probably been forced upon him by the danger of his own position, and
entreating that she would at least suffer the Prince to justify himself
before she condemned him for an act to which he was in all probability
compelled by circumstances. But the iron had entered into the mother's
soul, and the death of the Comtesse du Fargis, which shortly afterwards
took place, added another pang to those which she had already endured.

The beautiful lady of honour had never been seen to smile since she was
made acqua